I-Café Pilipinas won't lead, but will collaborate

CEBU, Philippines - I-Café Pilipinas, the national advocacy organization of internet café owners and operators in the Philippines, wants to make it clear that it has no intention of becoming the mother organization of internet café organizations and stressed that its existence is merely aimed at forging collaborative efforts with various organizations nationwide.

I-Café Pilipinas national advocacy officer Gener Luis Morada told The Freeman in a phone interview that I-Café has no intention of leading the pack of icafe organizations but rather would want to develop collaborative efforts with the different organizations all over the country for future projects of the industry.

In fact, I-Café has been encouraging the Internet Café Association of Cebu (Icac) to link with the organization and join in its advocacy efforts for the sector.

However, Morada said that I-Café has been contacting Icac through calls and emails but to no avail. The Freeman also failed to contact Icac.

“In the I-Café set up, there are no members. Only affiliates. We are all co-equal in status. I-café will just help. We will not take over. Their identity as an icafe organization in their respective areas is still there,’ Morada said.

One of the projects that I-Café has implemented is its recent agreement with the Cyber City Teleservices Philippines Inc. (CCTP), which entails the development of a nationwide network of call center agent employment processing centers, through internet cafes at the community level as access points for those who would like to apply for a position in CCTP.

This means that those who want to apply with the company would just have to go to the accredited internet cafés in their neighborhood. Under the scheme the accredited internet cafes in the different areas around the country would act as processing centers. An initial screening would be done by the internet café operator based upon the standards that is set by CCTP. If they pass the initial screening, the applicants would be asked to fill up an online application form and would be told to come back for their scheduled online interview with the recruitment officers of CCTP. If the applicant passes the initial interview then he is on his way to be part of CCTP.

I-Café has already linked with Internet café association of Tagum, Davao for this agreement with CCTP, a pioneer in the call center industry in the Philippines.

Morada said I-Café is also in the process of organizing its sister-company, the Kapatiran Icafe Multi-purpose Cooperative, which is mainly aimed at helping members gain access to affordable computer hardware and software; provide educational management training; and lend capital at low cost.

High cost of software and the saturation of the market resulting in cutthroat pricing are two of the problems the internet café industry is currently facing.

Morada said that the vision of I-Café is for internet cafes to not only offer entertainment but also opportunities for people in the community to use ICT as a tool to improve their living conditions.