BPO firm under fire for ‘smuggling’

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – A business process outsourcing (BPO) and call center here is under fire after an alleged attempt to smuggle computer parts out of this Freeport last Friday.

An officer of the security department of Clark Development Corp. (CDC) who asked not to be named identified the firm as iQor, which operates three call centers here.

The source could not immediately confirm the amount of the seized items, but said these could be assembled into 60 computer units.

He said CDC security personnel intercepted a yellow iQor bus on its way out of the freeport gate along Friendship Avenue in Angeles City.

The law provides that while investors in the country’s freeports do not pay custom taxes, the imported items must be used exclusively within the freeport.

The source said iQor authorities paid P130,000 in fines to CDC security officers, but Clark port authorities refused to release the items pending the filing of formal charges.

The seized items were about to be taken to Dasmariñas, Cavite, where iQor also operates a BPO and a call center firm, when it was intercepted

The source said that the iQor bus was also impounded at the Port of Clark’s office here.