Commentary
May 16, 2012
Advocates say corporate social responsibility (CSR) is central to how businesses operate and stay competitive. If so, like other business processes, CSR initiatives should be professionally managed to generate efficiency, productivity, and high return on investment.
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May 07, 2012
“I know how education can transform lives,” industry-changing engineer, successful venture capitalist and noted philanthropist Diosdado Banatao told a reporter recently, “because it transformed mine.” The story of the boy from Iguig Village in Cagayan who walked to school barefoot while his father toiled as an overseas worker is by now well-known, and well-documented.
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Apr 26, 2012
The Mindanao Power Summit last month brought the cost of power back to the headlines and to the forefront of political debate. For decades, Mindanao has enjoyed highly subsidized rates for electricity. The result was not just cheap energy. Maintenance of hydroelectric and other generating facilities was neglected, and planning and development of new generating capacity was ignored. Neither made financial sense, from a disastrously myopic perspective.
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Apr 19, 2012
“Seven years ago,” Puerto Princesa mayor Edward Hagedorn said over the weekend, “when we began promoting eco-tourism there were two flights a day to Puerto Princesa. Today, there are 22.” The increase in flights to Puerto Princesa is the result of expanding demand. From a trickle of domestic and international tourists when the mayor kicked off the campaign, the sprawling city attracted more than half a million tourists last year.
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Apr 04, 2012
Speaking to IT-BPO industry executives, government officials, and industry suppliers in a recent briefing, Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) president and CEO Benedict Hernandez said the industry will hire approximately 120,000 Filipinos this year in a variety of increasingly value-driven segments such as healthcare, engineering, animation, and accounting.
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Apr 04, 2012
A perfect storm of opportunity can propel the Philippines’ IT-BPO industry to US$33 billion in revenues by 2016, dramatically exceeding the best-case scenario forecast in the IT-BPO Road Map 2011-2016, according to Alejandro P. Melchor III. Other ICT opportunities can generate an additional $17 billion, boosting total IT-BPO industry revenues to an eye-popping $50 billion, Mr. Melchor predicts.
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Mar 29, 2012
The Philippines is the eighth-largest market in the world for Facebook—and the second largest in Asia after Indonesia—with almost 28 million regular users according to socialbakers, which measures activity on social networks. Unfortunately for the country’s entrepreneurial online retailers, however, Filipinos’ enthusiasm for social networks doesn’t translate into a significant level of online shopping activity.
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Mar 22, 2012
The Philippine IT-BPO industry may be on a roll—expanding 24% last year to more than $11 billion in revenue and 640,000 full-time employees (FTEs)—but industry leaders aren’t breaking out the cigars and brandy or sitting back to enjoy their success. Instead, a recent survey revealed seven areas IT-BPO executives believe must be urgently addressed to ensure that the industry continues to benefit from growing demand internationally for outsourced services.
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Mar 19, 2012
Filipinos feel a sense of national pride whenever Manny Pacquiao fights before an international audience, someone with even a minimal number of ethnic Filipino genes - or seems to have - is a contestant on American Idol, or a Filipino-American wins a local mayoral or city council election in the United States. Patriotism is provoked by the conviction that Filipinos are world class. At least until they become an obstacle to someone else’s job, or dreams.
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Mar 16, 2012
The office of Bishop Pedro D. Arigo, bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa, is humble in the extreme. He looks frail sitting behind a small, cluttered desk in a narrow room slightly wider than a broom closet. Like many aging men, his shoulders slump forward as he sits, and he uses his arms to prop himself up in a gracious gesture of informality. Bishop Arigo speaks with a soft voice that belies a steely determination.
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