Gov’t urged to stem exodus of fashion, industrial designers for jobs abroad

DAVAO CITY — Philippine fashion and industrial designers are moving abroad for better pay and environment, a Manila-based international designer said yesterday.

Percy “PJ” Jutare Aranador, a “lifestyle designer” and owner of PJ Aranador Design Studio One, claimed at least 3,000 designers and workers in his profession have migrated to China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Aranador has been tapped as consultant and resource person for the three-day Mindanao Trade Expo launched here on Thursday.

Fifteen of his own workers have also been lured by the big salary, free housing, and other perks offered by firms in India, Vietnam and China. The reason is simple, he said: a designer here in the Philippines earns a basic pay of P8,000 monthly compared with at least P45,000 abroad.

“Like in Colombia, Peru and the Carribean, [designers are] Filipinos,” said Mr. Aranador, the former vice-president of the Fashion and Design Council of the Philippines, said. “Our problems 30 years ago are the same problems now,” he added.

He said the government seemed to have overlooked the needs of fashion and industrial designers, unlike in advanced countries like Italy where their counterparts are given full support by their respective government.

He noted that emerging brands abroad are made in Thailand and Indonesia, and the Philippines is nowhere near carving a significant niche in the international fashion industry.

One of the problems, he said, is product branding, which takes several years to develop. Small businesses are not expected to sustain operations that long without assistance from the government, he added.

Mr. Aranador also said small and medium enterprises should not be forced to export and instead focus first on being producers.

Associations or groups should take care of the supply and marketing chains for partners abroad.

Mindanao Business Council chairman Vicente T. Lao said the country cannot control the brain drain because the Philippines cannot compete with the good salary and incentive packages abroad. The government should instead focus on capacity-building to quickly replace the number of Filipinos who are leaving the country.

“That’s what we are doing in the region right now,” he said, citing the Department of Labor and Employment’s adoption of the Regional Development Council’s recommendations to further equip the region’s labor force. — J. B. Escovilla, Businessworld