Valuing the Philippine Call Centers

By Roberto L. Bacasong
Company Writer
Unique Interaction Philippines


THE recent State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo highlighted the booming business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines. Mrs. Arroyo, clad in a red terno expressed the significant on how BPO is helping the country in terms of providing jobs to the Filipino people especially to the fresh graduates. BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance.
When I was practicing my media profession, I recalled that my former Editor-in-Chief from Sun.Star Bacolod stationed me at the Fountain of Justice in front of the Bacolod City Hall where the rallyists from the local level were staging their sentiment on Sona. These groups are handling different materials such as placards, streamers and effigy portraying Mrs. Arroyo in a very ugly creature, among others. I also have the chance to interview their respective secretary-generals on how they reacted as the President was receiving claps including numerous standing ovations while she was outlining her achievements and plans for the country. Of course, I already anticipated their message that they want to oust Mrs. Arroyo. As a faithful journalist, I see to it that everything I wrote was fair and not judgmental in order to have a balance story at the end of the day. I also reminisced that my former Visayas Bureau Chief from BusinessWorld also prepared assignments that I need to accomplish by asking comments to the local businessmen, politicians and public figures on how they interpret Sona. Just a quick background of my previous employment, I covered politics and governance for Sun.Star Bacolod (www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod) and also a correspondent for BusinessWorld (www.bworld.com.ph), a Manila-based newspaper. I started my career in journalism right after I finished my degree in Mass Communication in 2002.
From the time I completed my data, I wasted no time writing my article for tomorrow’s issue. This is my usual routine writing article to inspire our local readers and our online subscribers. My experienced in journalism gave me the opportunity to learn what is BPO and call center industry is all about. Bacolod at that time was struggling to have at least one contact center compared in the cities of Cebu, Iloilo and Dumaguete, which have their call centers operating in their respective business districts in Visayas region. It was only in 2006 where US-based firms from Manila decided to establish contact centers in my hometown. This is because of the positive feedback that the city produced competitive graduates in terms of speaking English language. Another factor is the participation of the academes and private sectors. Incumbent Bacolod City Mayor Evelio R. Leonardia welcomes the development of BPO industry which really improve the collection of the City’s revenues.
It’s so hard for me to quit my job because writing is really my passion. I know that I have so many things to be done and my four years in the media is not enough. Media is known as the watchdog in the society because we promote peace and brings development to the nation. I thank Mr. Beau Rudd and Mr. Rommel Sarmiento for giving me the opportunity to write again. Rest assured that this significant event in my life will always be treasured.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo is taking cognizance of the importance of call center industry because of the ability of the Filipinos to speak fluently in English. She even said in her speech: “The Philippines ranks among top off-shoring hubs in the world because of cost competitiveness and more importantly our highly trainable, English proficient, IT-enabled management and manpower…”
It only shows that call center industry in the Philippines has been called the “New India” as the country offers an abundance of inexpensive, English speaking labor. This was according to the 2003 Philippines Call Centre Industry Benchmark Study conducted by callcentres.net. Our country is very viable alternative to other locations in the Asia Pacific and hence many local and multinational organizations have set up contact centers. This trend is set to continue as numerous companies progressively seek an Asian presence to service customers both regionally and globally.
Mrs. Arroyo also said: “Information technology will help the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) bring in more taxes in the coming months…”
It means to say that more investments are likely to happen in the following years because of the presence of this industry. The country has approximately 200 call centers and 20,000 seats. It is estimated that 80% of these seats are operated by call center outsourcing bureaus.
She further said: “While our strength in contact centers is well-established, we are now focused on growing the higher value-added services, including accounting, legal, human resources and administrative services…”
She stressed: “The business services sector has become the fastest growing in the economy providing 400,000 jobs compared to 8,000 in 2000. By 2010 the forecast is one million jobs earning $12 billion, the same amount remitted by our overseas Filipinos today…”
If the government will unite and continue to promote the country as an investor-friendly in Asia many foreign multinational firms will choose Philippines to put up their business here. The political bickering will not help the country in stabilizing the economy. If political noise continue to exist especially most of the newly elect senators and solons are from the opposition parties. Let’s hope and pray that the last election should serve as lesson to the entire nation. But until when are we able to suffer from hunger and poverty if the rift of the lawmakers continue to exist?
Nevertheless, many factors should be prioritized if the government is serious in keeping this industry. First, is on education. Knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth. Without knowledge we cannot move on and do the things we want. With this development, the President said that the nation is investing more for education: P150 billion, P29 billion more than last year. In 2006, the government and private sector built 15,000 classrooms instead of the usual 6,000. Since call center industry wants their employees to be computer literate. The government reported that one third of the public high schools now have Internet access, with private sector support.
The President quoted in her speech: “We have a scarcity of public high schools but a surplus of private high schools. So instead of building more high schools, we give more high school scholarships - 600,000 scholars this year…” These are the developments that will surely strengthen the BPO industry in the country.
Aside from education, terrorism should be the top priority because it will scare the investors on putting their businesses in the country. The President herself is aware of the presence of the terrorists, which threatens the sovereign, democratic, compassionate and decent way of life. “Therefore, in the fight against lawless violence, we must uphold these values. It is never right and always wrong to fight terror with terror…”
I welcome the development that Human Security Act, a new anti-terror law that took effect last July 15, underscored the resolve to deal with terrorism and contribute to regional security. Because of the continuous rival of the military and the More Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, it is a good thing that she asked the Congress to enact laws to transform state response to political violence: First, laws to protect witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers. Second, laws to guarantee swift justice from more empowered special courts. Third, laws to impose harsher penalties for political killings. Fourth, laws reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services who betray public trust and bring shame to the greater number of their colleagues who are patriotic.
“It is my ardent wish that most of the vision I have outlined will be fully achieved when I step down. It is my unshakeable resolve that the fundamentals of this vision will by then be permanently rooted, its progress well advanced and its direction firmly fixed with our reforms already bearing fruit. All that will remain for my successor is to gather the harvest. He or she will have an easier time of it than I did…”
No matter what happen, the Philippines will continue to be a strong republic. The Sona lasted 56 minutes to deliver and was interrupted by 102 rounds of applause, including the standing ovation at the end. Till the next Sona!!!

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