Excerpt

THE Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) recently announced that it expected the information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector to fully transition to on-site office operations after March 31, 2022 in line with its Resolution 1921. This move was expected to boost the real estate leasing industry, particularly the office segment as BPOs rebuilt their on-site footprint. Filinvest REIT Corp. (Filrt), whose portfolio has one of the largest percentages of BPO tenants among Philippine real estate investment trusts (REITs) at 90.8 percent, was positioned to benefit significantly from this transition.

FIRB's announcement came as majority of the country was placed under a more relaxed Alert Level 1 with new Covid cases hitting below a thousand, starting March. Filrt President and Chief Executive Officer Maricel Brion-Lirio lauded FIRB, citing that the return to on-site office operations was a testament to the national government's commitment to rebuild the economy.

"FIRB's resolution, in tandem with the country's relentless push for vaccination, is critical to the IT-BPO sector's continued recovery. Bringing operations back to highly equipped sustainable workspaces will not only increase productivity and provide stable connectivity, but will also assist workers to deal with WFH (work from home) social challenges. We expect that this shift will boost our economy with a push towards job creation, consumer spending and business growth," said Brion-Lirio.

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