Sometimes, if not often, we put the blame to the politicians as the cause of brain drain. We could indeed point out as one of the main causes of professional immigration.

Here in our country, there is hardly a job opportunity even for a professional unless he has political connections. It's not so much the opportunities that foreign countries, like the United States and Canada, offer the Filipino technician or professional that have brought about the brain drain in our country, as the lack or scarcity of opportunity for the men and women whom we have taken great efforts to educate and train into well qualified practitioners or technicians.

For this lack of opportunity, politicians and too much politics are said to be blamed. They have shut the door of employment to qualified professionals, by placing instead their proteges and relatives who are not qualified, in big paying jobs in the government and private establishments.

Unemployment has become our problem for many years in our country. The unemployment condition has become serious that the government is somewhat helpless to devise any remedial measure. So, public officials just close their eyes and avoid hearing people talk about the problem, like an ostrich burying its head into the sand.

We say that there is hardly a job opportunity in our country even for the professional unless he has political connections. It seems that everything is being done through the politicians who infiltrate all government offices and agencies with their pernicious influence. It seems almost impossible to secure a job on the basis of one's qualifications. The qualified professional who does not have political connection slips away and finds place where there's a greener pasture outside his own country. Where else if not to the U.S.A. or Canada?

Our professionals make up our country's intellectual capital. We believe that they are our hope in building up this country. In our time, human talents and skills are widely regarded as prime national assets. Societies in all stages of development tend to look upon their 'stocks' of human resources as 'capital,' "and to husband the talents and skills of individuals as the source of leadership in a complex world."

What will happen here when most of our professionals have left our shores? Can politicans take their places in the hospitals, clinics, chemical factories, and farms? America and Canada can accommodate thousands of our professionals, who can all leave if job opportunities are lacking for them even how much we need them here in our country.