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The best Filipino Software Developers are headed for Singapore

An article at the Inquirer last night revealed that Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) has expressed alarm over the rampant recruitment of Filipino software professionals by Singaporean companies. Migs, opened up the discussion at PTB: Can Pinoy Software Companies Stop the Exodus to Singapore?

The obvious answer is no. And we all know why.

An old friend and high school classmate is going to work in Singapore in two weeks. That, after over 4 years working at a semicon company in Cavite paying him a measly 15k a month. Half a dozen other friends and former officemates are already in Singapore with starting salaries in the range of Php80,000 and up. Another friend and schoolmate has been working for a hardware (hint: camera, printers, etc.) company for 6 years since he graduated and has worked in their Japan office half the time but until now, he hasn’t reached the 6-figure salary. I told him, if he’d look for a similar job in Singapore, he’ll easily get double or triple of what he gets now.

The sad thing is — this is not an isolated case in the tech industry in the Philippines. So many other sectors have been going thru this mass exodus for decades. Need I enumerate the number of nurses, engineers and teachers flying out to other parts of the world seeking for a better paying job? During my visits to Taiwan, Pakistan and Indonesia, I’d always get a nice smile from people telling me Filipinos are all over. I’d laugh and reply half-joking that our biggest industry is exporting people all over the world.

Is there a way around this? I certainly hope. If the government and the private sector can’t do anything about it, the individual should. My aunts and uncles (including my mom) would always use to budge me to go and find a job in the US and I’d always say no. Told them, I’ll show you one can make a good living staying in the Philippines. One just needs to be more enterprising.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

49 Responses

  1. Avatar for iphone repairs iphone repairs says:

    Does you know when the newer iphone operating system being launched?

  2. Avatar for Miquel Pod Miquel Pod says:

    We generally do not get away from responses nevertheless that has to these times! My personal saved website about reddit!

  3. Avatar for Carlos C Tapang Carlos C Tapang says:

    If you’ve come this far down in these comments, consider yourself lucky. It’s now more than two years after this article was written; but it’s not too late, specially because the 2010 election is still at hand.

    Why are there more jobs in Indonesia and Thailand than in Pinas? I see several reasons, but two really stand out: (1) there’s very little foreign investment coming in; annually we only get hundreds of millions of dollars, but Indonesia and Thailand each gets billions; and (2) aside from exorbitant taxes, it is really very difficult to start any business here. The red tape and nonsense one has to go through even just to start a cafe are almost impossible to comply with, imposed from both national arms of government and local city offices. We have to get rid of these obstacles to business.

    My solution? It’s very simple: vote for Manny Villar!

  4. Avatar for pete pete says:

    yuga,
    Been to different places worldwide meeting Filipinos and also working offshore.
    Almost all have the same thinking: more salary in the least amount of work time. But walking near their bedrooms I could hear usual cries of homesickness, depression, cultureshock,loneliness,discrimination, harassment, family wars ndlike. I say there’s no place like home. BUT d problem is: The philippines is not a small enterprise-friendly country. Enterpreneuers are not respected and of lower social status compared to corporate executives I presume. Moreover, our economy is now totally dependent on OFW remittance and our gov’t is very proud of it. Filipinos has now become top export product of R.P. This is bad. Probably will be seeing more Maria and Pedro for sale in your websites soon. I’m an EE by the way but loves I.T. Wish somebody could help me from your end with webdesign, webmaintenance, etc.

  5. Avatar for iRoN iRoN says:

    It shows how poor our country is… shit I’ll go abroad too to get a better salary for a good living! slaps to our government.

  6. Avatar for chered chered says:

    government should be the first to do something on this long time exodus of pinoys going abroad. if you ask them all will say it is better to live and work in other countries than stay in Philippines. yes really filipinos are very good employees as we, here in singapore, will vouch for it..

    http://www.pinoymattersg.com

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