Sen. Angara urges government to keep Filipino graduates in the Philippines
Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara on Tuesday urged the government to start prioritizing programs that would motivate Filipino graduates to work in the Philippines rather than abroad.

(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Angara said the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and state universities and colleges (SUCs) should focus on helping industries produce more jobs in the country rather than losing the best and the brightest to overseas headhunters.
The senator noted that among the many professionals that end up seeking job opportunities abroad are those in the medical profession, scientists and engineers.
“In this direction of futures thinking, we could add as a metric of performance of the SUCs—how we are helping the Filipino producers and manufacturers by producing jobs that are local rather than just producing good graduates who eventually work overseas because we don’t have industries present in our country,” Angara said in a statement.
He said educational institutions can work with the manufacturing sector and 21st century industries for the creation of more jobs in the country so Filipinos would no longer have to leave their families behind just to find decent employment.
“We should encourage all the innovative thinkers in our country to do their part in this effort and in a way, we can move Filipinos up the value chain somehow,” he pointed out.
Angara reminded that under the Bayanihan to Recover As One or the Bayanihan 2, a total of P3-billion was provided for the development of smart campuses in the SUCs and P1-billion for the scholarships of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
The Senate finance committee chief also noted that the upper chamber included a provision in the 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA) to exempt the implementation of the Free College Law from the cash-based budgeting in order to extend the utilization of the budgets of the SUCs and local universities and colleges, but this was vetoed by the President.
The lawmaker said the SUCs and CHED should work with Congress in lobbying for support from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to ensure this would be included in the proposed P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021.