DFNN BEWAILS "POLITICIZING" OF IT / BPO ISSUES

Listed tech firm DFNN today expressed deep concern over the politicizing of the IT-BPO sector in the country with the recent spate of negative news regarding Pagcor's status as a non-BPO firm.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, DFNN said that the recent articles politicizing the BPO industry “may have a long term and material financial impact on the growth prospects of the Philippine information technology(IT) and BPO industries.

DFNN chairman Ramon C. Garcia Jr and chief operating officer Ricardo Banaag said there should never be a distinction between IT/BPO industries undertaken under different state regulatory bodies such as the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, Board of Investments and/or Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp.

“All the work, despite the different regulatory bodies, have commonalities defined under IT/BPO industries inclusive of software development, customer support, creation of various financial technology (fintech) solutions, back office accounting and telemarketing/contact centers,” DFNN said.

The DFNN said that politicizing the issue could lead to IT/BPOs transferring their business elsewhere since these IT/BPOs also compete with other similar businesses from other countries like the USA, Canada, Malta, Latin America, Vietnam, Cyprus and Antigua, among others.

“As a publicly-listed company, we are therefore making a call to all the Philippines participants in the IT/BPO industries to refrain from being involved in any political agenda and (instead) focus on not losing any jobs for Filipinos to other competing countries,” DFNN said.