Duterte’s “split” with US won’t affect BPOs

BEIJING — The Philippines' business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will not be affected by President Rodrigo Duterte's pronouncement that he was cutting the country's military and economic ties with the US, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said on Friday, GMA News reported.

Pernia said that Duterte didn't mean that the Philippines would sever its economic ties with the world's only remaining superpower and the country's treaty ally.

He said BPO companies, which are mostly owned by US-based, had been helping increase dollar inflows to the Philippines.

"BPOs will continue. BPOs will not be touched. They have provided us with foreign exchange and it's now even higher than or it's going to be higher than OFW [overseas Filipino worker] remittances," Pernia said.

Pernia sought to allay fears that the Philippines would stop its economic partnership with the US, saying the President only "rebalancing" trade from the West to Asia particularly China, another major economic player in the world.

"He mentioned about separation. The way to understand that is what we are really going to do is to rebalance our economic relations from too much dependence from the West to the Asian region," Pernia said.

Pernia said Asia is the growth area of the century.

"China is a major player in this growth area. And for a long time, we have not taken very seriously our economic relations with China. This time, we feel we should really engage with China stronger," Pernia said.

"In effect, we are really broadening our investment and trade base from too much dependence on the West to greater attention to the Asian region," he added.

"So it is a rebalancing. It is not a separation. It is a rebalancing of economic relations to a broader base of trade and investment relations," Pernia said.

He said that Duterte's "solid" economic team would have the final say on Duterte's trade policies.

"The President has a strong economic team, very solid economic team. And whatever economic pronouncement, it's really the economic team that makes the final say," Pernia said.

"It's not separation. As I've said, you have to parse it as a rebalancing, as a reconstructuring of economic relations from too much dependence on the West," he added.

"We will maintain our ties with the West, Europe, with Japan of course, and the US, the Latin America, and even African countries. The more relations you have in different parts of the world, the better for the economy," Pernia said.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. in another ambush interview indicated that there was nothing new with Duterte's announcement on Thursday that he was cutting ties with the US.

"He had been saying this all along. This was the core of his message. We are separating from that colonial mentality that has impeded our investments and our growth," Yasay said.

"So it is in that context that he said that we are opening up to other countries who are willing to help us with no strings attached. In that context we would like to push for integration with our ASEAN and our neighbors," he added.