Elmer Francisco cites misleading figure on BPO workers

During the last leg of ABS-CBN’s Harapan Senatorial Town Hall debate on March 3, 2019, Clarinne Ramos, a student from St. Paul University-Quezon City, posed this question:

Ano po ba ang maihahain ninyo para sa aming mga kabataan? At bakit po namin kayo mas dapat iboto kaysa sa mga datihan na?

First to answer was Partido Federal ng Pilipinas candidate Elmer Francisco.

Elmer Francisco said:

Limang milyong Pilipino ang nagkakaroon ng trabaho sa mga call centers… Ipapatigil natin ‘yung maipasa ‘yung TRAIN 2, dahil tinatanggal ‘yung mga incentives ng mga ecozone locators, katulad ng mga call centers. Dahil kapag naipasa po iyan, limang milyong Pilipino, lalo na’t mga kabataan ang mawawalan ng trabaho.

But according to data from the IT-Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), 1.15 million were active in the Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector in 2016. This figure includes those employed in call centers. IBPAP projects that as many as 1.8 million could be employed in the entire IT-BPM sector by 2020.

Meanwhile, a 2017 paper by the Board of Investments showed that for every direct, full-time employee, an additional 3.2 indirect and induced jobs were created in the sector. Using IBPAP’s data, which was also used by BOI, this would translate to 4.83 million jobs.

Watch the full story on ABS-CBN News

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