The Ilocos Times

(First of 2 parts) By Ernesto T. Lumaoang “For those contemplating on taking up teaching as a career and expecting a substantial ROI, you are heading to the wrong path.   Truth be told that teaching is only some ROI and then some.” Introduction: This phenomenon called “brain drain” or the migration of experts, bright minds or the academic elites to irresistible overseas job destinations where their skills and expertise in their fields of specialization and training are richly compensated many times over by their foreign employers does not seem to slow down, let alone show the slightest sign of abatement. Interestingly, as if adding insult to injury, major players and stakeholders, most particularly the government, both past and present, continue to turn a blind eye to this sorry state of affairs.   Fact is, there is even a continuing aggressive effort of the government in discovering a wider overseas labor market for our local skilled and pr

By Alfredo C. Garvida, Jr. Contributor To a nation, national pride means that the dignity—and pride—of its citizenry had to be upheld at all cost. This is the rationale of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s steadfast refusal to give in to Hong Kong's demand for the Philippine government to apologize for the senseless murders of unsuspecting tourists from Hong Kong on August of 2010 by a former police officer who claimed to have been victimized by an oppressive system in the police organization.   Aquino's government mouthpieces are interposing varying reasons in defense of the President's adamant stand—from the proverbial saying that Juan's sin cannot be Pedro's, to their weightless assertion that a presidential apology could trigger a string of civil suits against the government. What a laugh, this is, and what a compromised national pride this reasoning has become, given the notion it imparts that we are a nation afraid to face the c