WHILE the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) does not register Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs), it nevertheless supports their reopening as announced by the government over the weekend.
PEZA director-general Charito Plaza even went as far as suggesting for POGOs to concentrate their operations in “islands” and register their activities with two other investment promotion agencies (IPAs).
In clarifying that POGOs are online gambling and not classified as business process outsourcing (BPOs) and therefore are not registered with PEZA, Plaza was echoing a statement made by Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, PEZA board chairman.
In a text message, Lopez said POGOs are online gaming but have similarities with BPOs in terms of the use of information technology (IT) and online platform in their business models.
Lopez said since POGOs are not brick and mortar and no physical interaction with clients and customers takes place in their operations, they can be allowed to operate applying the required minimum health protocol standard set for other industries.
Macau or Las Vegas
But according to Plaza, there are two IPAs which have been given the authority to register online gambling, the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority and the Aurora Economic Zone Authority.
These have their own charters and are not under PEZA.
“The government can focus the location of online gambling in these two areas or put these operators in selected islands for security and safety purposes but, not in the existing business districts and urban centers of Metro Manila and other cities,” Plaza said.
She added the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. is very capable of putting up and managing these selected islands, designing these as games and recreation tourism destinations similar to China’s Macau and the US’s Las Vegas.
“PEZA supports government efforts to raise income by POGOs and online gambling,” Plaza said in a statement.
What is a BPO?
Plaza said based on PEZA’s definition, business process outsourcing is the delegation of service-type business processes to a third-party service provider.
She said BPOs in the Philippines are classified into the following sectors: contact centers, back office services, data transcription, animation, software development, engineering development and game development.
Rey Untal, president and chief executive officer of the
IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said while BPOs and POGOs share one extraneous similarity, which is their offshoring nature, POGOs primarily do so “because they are allegedly unable to practice their betting or gambling functions in their respective shores.”
Unlike POGOs, the IT-enabled jobs BPO companies create are of much higher value.
Untal said POGOs’ functions should not be confused with “game development,” a specialized type of outsourcing.
He said “BPOs employ Filipinos, millions of them in fact, while POGOs use foreign labor.”
