More than 12,000 Filipino scientists and engineers emigrated between 1966 and 1978, according to Fernando Sanchez, past president of the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges. About 120,000 Filipino doctors and nurses are now working abroad, primarily in the United States.
Sanchez said that although the level of science graduates has not dropped, "more of these are not practicing their professions or have joined the mass exodus of professionals for overseas jobs."
Money is the primary reason scientists work abroad. The top salary for faculty members is 6,000 pesos ($300) a month at the University of the Philippines, and less at private universities. Most of them therefore try to supplement their incomes through research grants and consultancies for industry and government projects.
A government agency has estimated that between 800 and 900 scientists with doctorates were living in the Philippines in 1982. Less than a third of them were doing research, ...
