US ‘captioning’ law a boon to RP – Gullas

A law in the United States mandating 100 percent "captioning" or subtitling in video broadcasts, including those on the Internet and film productions, could be a boon to the Philippines, a House leader said yesterday.

The law could prompt concerned US employers to recruit Filipinos for captioning work, which means putting subtitles on English broadcasts and film presentations, said Deputy Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas.

"We expect our thriving business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to gain considerably from the increased demand for captioning services in the months ahead," he said.

In fact, he said a BPO provider, PeopleSupport Inc., which is operating 4,700-seat call centers in Makati and Cebu, has already started recruiting Filipinos to train them in captioning.

"Captioning is something new for our college graduates. Unlike call centers, captioning does not require voice skills. What is essential in captioning is English comprehension skill. This underscores the need for us to quickly reinforce the English skills of our students," he added.

Gullas pointed out that American employers would surely source their captioning manpower outside their own country since there are only 26,000 "captioning professionals" in the US, most of them employed as judicial reporters.

Besides, these captioning workers are costly, receiving average annual salaries of $70,000, equivalent to about P3.7 million or more than P300,000 a month, he said.

With that amount, US companies can employ at least 10 Filipino subtitle providers, assuming they pay them P30,000 a month each, he said.

The captioning law is meant to help 28 million hearing-impaired Americans who risk missing critical information that could save their lives in a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

The US Federal Communications Commission has already imposed stiff fines on TV stations that failed to provide captions during emergency broadcasts in recent wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes.

Here in the country, Gullas is urging producers and distributors of Tagalog movies and television programs to help check the declining English proficiency by adding English subtitles to their shows.

"This is one sure way to reinforce the average Filipino’s ability to speak, comprehend and write English," he said.

English subtitles would facilitate in a big way the learning and use of English, considering the popularity of Tagalog movies and TV programs, he said.

"If program distributors can dub or add Tagalog soundtrack to telenovelas from South Korea, Mexico and other countries, then surely, they can also include English subtitles," he added.

The Cebu lawmaker predicted that if left unchecked, the deterioration in English competency of Filipinos "is bound to erode our economic competitiveness in an increasingly technology-driven world."

"English is the language of technology and software. Adequate mastery of the language must form part of the skill sets of our workers, whether high school graduates or college educated, if we are to heighten our ability to compete," he said.

The average Filipino’s self-assessed English proficiency has slumped considerably in the last 12 years, according to a March 2006 survey. — Jess Diaz