Taguig City – Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito “Ching” Plaza on Sunday emphasized that PEZA does not register online gambling as it is not part of the law governing the investment promotion agency’s (IPA) mandate. However, she supports government efforts to raise income through Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).
“While PEZA is the highest contributor to export income to the country through its economic zones program and its export enterprises engaged in IT/BPO services as the biggest job provider; however, the agency does not include the registration of online gambling as it is not among those export-services provided in the PEZA law,” said Plaza.
Plaza stated that “among the 14 IPAs, PEZA is authorized to register lands and buildings as economic zones subject to the PEZA Board approval and the grant by the office of the President of a Presidential Proclamation.”
The exporters of commodities and services includes companies into manufacturing, processing, assembly, refinery, tourism, medical tourism, agro-industrial which contribute the highest export income of 65% to the country. The IT/BPOs constitute the majority of employment generated by PEZA-registered industries at 52.77%.
PEZA is not mandated to register POGOs
Under EO No. 13 issued by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on 02 February 2017, only the following government agencies are given the privilege and the right to operate and license gambling casinos: PAGCOR within the entire territorial jurisdiction of the Philippines and three (3) Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) specifically the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone Free Port Authority (APECO), Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), and Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), within their respective territorial jurisdictions.
PEZA does not have an authority to issue license to operate gambling casinos and online gambling in the country.
Meanwhile, Plaza recommends that “The government can focus the location of online gambling in these three 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.”
“PAGCOR is very capable to manage these selected Islands, designing these as Games and Recreation Tourism destinations similar to China’s Macau Island and Las Vegas of the USA,” the PEZA Chief elucidated further.
PEZA’s programs
Plaza explained that “PEZA is expanding its ecozones program to the countryside and by creating new and green, healthy (smoke free, drug free & pollution free) sustainable and smart economic zones.”
She pointed out that PEZA invites only the environment-friendly industries as PEZA is strict in enforcing its two non-negotiable policies to investors: first is the protection and responsible use of the environment and its natural resources and second is the rights and welfare of the Filipino workers.
“PEZA has proven its contributions not only to export income and massive employment it created, but also to the social progress it contributes for the host local government units where ecozones and export companies are located,” she said.
Plaza said that “As host LGUs benefit from the presence of ecozones by contributing to revenue-generation, employment, improving the classification of LGUs and lowering the poverty and crime incidence, hence the goal of PEZA is to spread and replicate the program in the countryside nationwide.”
Why POGOs are not BPOs
In the Philippines, the BPO industry is categorized into the following sectors: (1) contact center (2) back office (3) data transcription (4) animation (5) software development (6) engineering development (7) digital content (8) knowledge process outsourcing (9) game development (10) information technology outsourcing and (11) engineering services outsourcing.
Plaza stated that “Based on this, it is clear that the definition of POGO as an ‘entity that offers and participates in offshore gaming services by providing games to players, taking bets, and paying the winning players’ is not among the sectors identified as BPO.”
In a statement released by the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), they clarified that POGOs are not considered as BPOs as there are key differences that needed to be understood. IBPAP pointed out how POGOs are different from BPOs.
“BPO companies are registered with PEZA or the Board of Investments (BOI), while POGOs are registered with PAGCOR. 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,” said in the IBPAP statement.
As of December 2019, total number of PEZA-registered IT Enterprises is 1,701. There is a total number of 290 PEZA-registered IT Parks and Centers and total employees in IT sector is 845,170. #