Peza cracks down on building owners hosting gaming firms

Building owners leasing space to gaming firms could lose their accreditation with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Peza Director General Charito B. Plaza emphasized that gaming operations were outside the mandate of the agency.

However, a number of gaming firms have been passing themselves off as business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to get space in buildings accredited by Peza.

Plaza learned that a number of these gaming firms in Peza-accredited buildings had been licensed by Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza), a separate agency that can allow the operation of gaming firms.

According to Plaza, the building owners made the mistake of assuming Ceza is under Peza.

“If we hear that there are still locators there, the worst we can do is to get the license permit of the building owner. We would remove it,” she said last week.

Such a permit or accreditation gives tenants tax breaks such as an income tax holiday.

There are more than 100 Ceza locators in Metro Manila, she said.
However, she had “no idea” how many of these firms were engaged in online gambling.

She said these Ceza firms were allegedly in Metro Manila because an opinion from the Office of the Secretary General allowed them to do so while the internet infrastructure in Cagayan Valley was being developed.

When asked for a timeline for these gaming firms to move out, she said that she would call for a meeting on May 2 to update the building owners about the decision of the Peza board to exclude gaming companies.

“This week, I will invite all accredited building owners to a meeting in Metro Manila. We will invite them and give them the policy that the Peza board will not allow them to have the online gambling firms lease in Peza-accredited buildings,” she said.

She said this started when Peza received a tip late last year from business process outsourcing firms based in the RCBC Tower, a Peza-accredited building, in Makati City.

Plaza said she had been informed there were gaming firms in the RCBC Tower, but said that she had no idea how many.

Earlier this month, the Peza board along with the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines discussed the possibility of including gaming firms into the mix of accredited locators under Peza. However, they have reached a consensus that this should not be legitimized.

“The OP wants Peza to allow BPOs into online gambling to locate here. We consulted our BPOs. The problem is we will not allow them because, first, gambling is not a mandate of Peza,” she said.