With all the talk about brain drain and the mass migration of Filipino doctors I wonder why I am being given the run-around in my quest to renew my license to practice medicine in the Philippines. Now I am being asked to prove that I am not a dual citizen. I don't mean to sound arrogant here considering my most previous post was about that subject but this is one moment when I'm asking for a small break. I did pass the physician licensure exam 17 years ago and all I did was train abroad so why place an extra obstacle now that I am ready to practice medicine in my own country? Who is making these unreasonable rules?

This is one important difference with the US system. Licensure is purely based on merit and capacity. It has nothing to do with citizenship which in this global world is a concept that is fast becoming obsolete. Nations must strive to attract the most competent and citizenship has absolutely nothing to do with this.

When Representative Rolex Suplico was in the Ginza district of Tokyo recently, he purchased two Rolex watches at a 30 percent discount for his daughter and his son; the discounted cost of the two watches was $6000. “For the price of one, it was as if I was buying two,” Suplico happily told Congress reporters.

His happiness was short-lived because his credit card was declined on the suspicion that it was stolen. Congressman Suplico was indignant and had to ask a fellow congressman to spot him the amount.

“I was humiliated being told I was a criminal using a stolen card,” he said not realizing or pretending not to know that this happens frequently in order to protect consumers. Back in his hometown he grew even more livid when he found out that the matter was not being considered a big deal. “A bank vice president or higher officer should have talked to me,” he said. Reminds me of how a Philippine Senator urged our Department of Foreign Affairs to file a diplomatic protest to the US because he was made to take his shoes off at the airport.

When did these "public servants" start behaving as though they were way above the throng? I guess it must become policy to ask these "servants" to step down whenever they begin acting in this manner because it is a clear reflection of how far these officials have strayed from their stated missions.

You want to be a mountain-dweller,
No need to trek to India to find one.
I’ve a thousand peaks
To pick from right here on the lake.
Fragrant grasses and white clouds
Hold me here.
What holds you there,
World-dweller?

- Chiao Jan (730-799)

The principal reason for the medical exodus is not higher pay. It is to provide for their children a quality education. We have such a poor public school system in the Philippines that in order to produce competitive graduates, we rely on the private-parochial web of schools. My first 12 years were spent at the Ateneo de Manila, a Jesuit school. I was shocked to find out that the annual tuition for Prep (which is before first grade) at the Ateneo was $1600. This amount does not cover books, supplies, transportation, lunch money, uniforms and other sundry expenses.

The average annual income of a physician runs roughly in the range of $10,000. Major expenses include housing and motor vehicles (which cost more than twice their US counterparts). There isn't going to be much left especially if you have more than 2 children.

I have heard it many times that physicians can bear all these hardships and continue to sacrifice personal comfort and security for as long as their children are not hindered from realizing their potential and it is because of this that they are deserting this nation in droves.

The first Filipino deaths since the war broke out last month in Lebanon were reported yesterday.

Although confirming the deaths, the reports of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the labor department differed as to circumstances surrounding their deaths. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) reported that one domestic helper was killed while trying to escape from her employer to join the evacuation, while another fell while reportedly cleaning the window of an apartment.

But the DFA said the two Filipinas died when they jumped from buildings to flee employers who apparently refused to let them go.

Since when did two fatal accidents involving window-cleaning occur over a span of three days? This underscores the hazardous nature of working as a domestic in a foreign land especially in the Middle East and to think that most of these domestics work from dawn to dusk and share living quarters with pet dogs and turtles and are paid $150 a month! The government needs to provide more protection for its citizens and not simply wait for their hard-earned remittances to prop-up an economy that principally serves the wealthy.