Bakit....?

"What does it mean when around 1 million Pilipinos leave the Philippines every year to work abroad..."

I chose this quote because it exactly what happened to my family. To make a long story short, my dad's business collapsed during the Arroyo presidency. I had always wondered, "Why did we leave the Philippines? Was it not a viable option to stay there and rebuild? Didn't my dad regret leaving majority of his family in the Philippines?" Heaven forbid, I know my parents wholly miss their homeland--my mom tells me at least once a week about how she'd like to go back. So, exactly...why did we leave in the first place?

My dad told me simply: "Because there are more opportunities here in America." And then it brings to light exactly the position of the PI in the global system. If even my own parents view the PI this way, as a place of home but not a place good enough to abide by the standards of how you'd want to raise a family, then how about the other people? If many of us think and complain now about how tumultuous the US political system is, then how more so do we think poorly of the situation in the Philippines?

Why must it take a ratio of a million people every year moving out, disconnecting from their homeland because they can't find jobs or a stable education, to make us and the people there realize that there's something wrong? And given that those who did immigrate out are blessed with having the finance, how about those who cannot and have to stay? What do they think about this? These are just some things that popped out to me.