THE Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) on Tuesday said it will intensify efforts to transform temporary international migrations into “brain gain.” The CFO cited the return of geologist Francine Beatriz Prades as a successful model for brain gain or long-term national benefits. Prades, a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (Yseali) Civic Engagement Fellow, recently returned from a J-1 exchange residency in the United States. In a statement, the CFO said that as the secretariat for the J-1 Exchange Visitor Program (EVP), it ensures that Filipinos “participating in global exchanges are protected abroad and, crucially, encouraged to return.” This mechanism, it said, “is central” to its mandate to mitigate the social costs of migration by fostering an environment where returning talent can thrive at the grassroots level. Prades had been applying for the EVP since 2018. While she initially applied under the environmental sector, she pivoted this year to civic engagement to learn how science meets society, the CFO said. “By facilitating the transfer of technology and civic strategies back to the Philippines, the J-1 program serves as a mechanism to transform temporary stays into long-term national benefits,” the commission added. CFO Secretary Dante Ang II has underscored the vital role of cultural exchange in global learning. Ang also reminded Filipino educators on the J-1 visa program to “honor their commitment to return home after completing the program.” Historically, the Philippines is the top sending country for the J-1 teacher category, according to the CFO. The J-1 visa program, established under the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 and later the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, was designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the US and other countries. The CFO said stories like Prades’ serve as “a template for how the Filipino diaspora and exchange participants can function as engines of innovation rather than just sources of remittances.”