PEZA allays fears over crackdown on online gambling

MANILA, Philippines -  Building owners in Metro Manila have expressed alarm over the planned policy of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to close its doors to online gambling firms.

“We invited building owners and we conducted a dialogue with the PEZA accredited owners. They said they will lose clients because they will have to ask existing locators to move out,” PEZA director general Charito Plaza said in an interview yesterday.

She said 50 percent of the building owners admitted they are hosting business process outsourcing (BPO) firms engaged in online gaming.

She said a report from the Office of the President, meanwhile, claimed 90 percent of PEZA-accredited buildings in Metro Manila have locators engaged in online gambling activities.

Plaza, however, said the agency was able to pacify the concerns of PEZA-proclaimed building owners.

“The compromise we arrived at in our dialogue is that we will honor their contracts if they have locators who are into online gambling. But once those contracts end, they should not renew them. Or if they have another building, let them occupy the other buildings that are not PEZA accredited,” Plaza said.

“If they renew, it is their option to give up their accreditation or face the penalties,” she added.

Plaza said PEZA would come out by May 9 with a final policy for its planned refusal to accommodate online gambling firms in the country. The policy will include regulations as well as potential penalties to be implemented.

The official said PEZA has a strong stance against online gaming firms posing as BPO companies in PEZA-proclaimed buildings and as such, it intends to free its accredited buildings nationwide with both legitimate and illegitimate gaming companies which avail of PEZA incentives.

The move is not likely to affect and ruin the image of the legitimate BPOs locating in its sites, she added.

“First of our reason to refuse is because it is not our mandate. Once we declare a vertical economic zone, we are not allowed by the PEZA law to have locators who are into online gambling. In what our description of what are these forms of gambling, even support facilities we will not allow,” Plaza said.

“If there are spaces vacant in their buildings, the owners can have this leased by the others such as offices, but not those engaged in gambling,” she added.