By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), which groups the IT business process management (IT-BPM) firms operating in the country, has distanced itself from the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs saying these firms cannot be considered as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Rey Untal, president and CEO of ITBPAP, issued a statement to clarify the differences between BPOs and POGOs. Foremost, Untal pointed out that BPO companies are registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority or the Board of Investments, while POGOs are registered with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (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. “It is also worth noting that the IT-enabled jobs BPO companies create are of much higher value, requiring a range of technical, domain, and soft skills. This is also very different from the work done by the game development sector which is sometimes mistaken as having similarities due to the gaming notion,” said Untal. In addition, the group noted that “BPOs come to the Philippines to leverage off the country’s human capital, like strong English and technical skills, customer service orientation, malasakit, and ability to adapt to foreign cultures.” This, in turn, has directly benefitted millions of Filipinos by providing them with better employment opportunities throughout the years. In the case of POGOs, IBPAP said, majority of their staffing comes from foreign labor brought into the country to support their operations. POGOs are also not part of the annual IT-BPO headcount and revenue report, which in 2019 ended with 1.3 million direct employees and $26.3 billion in revenues.