EDITORIAL - The BPO scare is just a scare

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña called to a meeting at City Hall last week some representatives of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in Cebu to try an entice them with several government programs just so they would stay put where they are. Osmeña is apparently one of a growing number of people who feel concerned as a result of the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States.

The concern stems from a number of radical policies Trump promised during the campaign to implement if he gets elected. Well, he has been elected, and one of the promises he made was to bring back jobs to the United States. Taken at face value, that particular promise indeed raises concern in many places around the globe, including Cebu, that host a number of American BPO companies.

But no leader anywhere throughout history who has ever been elected on the strength of campaign promises has lived to fulfill most, if not all, of the campaign promises he has made. That is because circumstances change drastically the moment a candidate becomes a president. There are simply things that a candidate, no matter how well-informed and brillant, never gets to know until he becomes the president.

The presidency has the uncanny ability to change both character and perspective. It has began to change Donald Trump though not as palpably as many would like. But, hey, it is barely a week since the elections. And it is not until January that he gets to be sworn in. As to our own president, Rodrigo Duterte, the guy is a tough nut to crack and it may take the full term of the presidency to change him. He is just into his fifth month, remember? But that is another story.

The meeting called by Osmeña is a welcome display of executive action. It shows a pro-active attitude in face of a potential crisis. Nevertheless, like the many who feel similarly concerned about the unexpected emergence of Trump, Osmeña could simply be wrong in his jitters. Like the many, Osmeña believes in each campaign hyperbole dealt by Trump and, sadly, did not do some calculating.

When somebody shouts fire in a theater, sometimes it is not best to head for the exits at once but to look around and see if there is indeed a fire. This is what is apparently happening in the case of the Trump-BPO scare. When a chicken is about to lay an egg, it first makes such a ruckus. Life sometimes need a little pause and a little push-back for us to get a clearer perspective.

The point is, it is not that easy for a BPO company to just up and go, even if Trump says so. In fact, it is hard to believe he actually would. Trump is a businessman. He knows that as wages go, it is at least ten times cheaper to outsource jobs in, say, the Philippines than bring the same jobs back to the U.S. Besides, why would anyone want to spend ten times on wages for a job that Americans themselves do not want in the first place? The BPO scare is just what it is, a scare.