President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was urged to create and send a strong contingent of Filipi­nos that would persuade lawmak­ers in the US Congress to stop the passage of a bill that could kill the US$9-billion business pro­cessing outsourcing (BPO) in the country. Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evar­done, chairman of the House Committee on Public Informa­tion, lamented that US House Bill No. 3596 or the Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill will discourage American companies from outsourcing services in oth­er countries like the Philippines.
“We have to act immediately by sending a strong lobby team in the US. I believe this will kill the BPO industry in the country,” Evardone said. Evardone said that the measure pending in US Congress would impose a penalty of US$10,000 a day on any American firm that failed to report to the US Depart­ment of Labor about their reloca­tion to an offshore location within 60 days. He added that the mea­sure requires the firms to inform the US Department of Labor 120 days in advance about their off­shore plans and others.

“We have to protect and pro­mote our BPO industry, which is now the largest in the whole world. We have already overtaken by In­dia in voice information technol­ogy-BPO. We are number two in the world in complex, non-voice services in range of sectors and services, like animation develop­ment and software processing,” Evardone said. He said the Philippines is num­ber one in BPO in terms of voice information and number two in services. Evardone said BPO and over­seas Filipino workers (OFWs) re­mittances are key contributors in sustaining our economic growth and in minimizing the impact of US and European economic cri­sis. “We need afford to lose our competitive advantage in the field of BPO. We need to protect, nur­ture and support the BPO indus­try, one of the main lifeblood of our economy,” said Evardone.

In 2011, the BPO industry gen­erated $9 billion worth of revenues or 4.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product as it pro­vides livelihood to about 400,000 Filipino professionals working in call center companies. The Eastern Samar lawmaker added that the country generated less than P100 million in total rev­enues in 2011 and doubled yearly until it reached $3.3 billion.