CITY OF MALOLOS, Bulacan, Philippines — Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado announced Wednesday that plenty of job opportunities await Bulakenyos as more local and foreign investors are expected to pour millions of pesos in San Rafael town after President Benigno S. Aquino III declared a nine-hectare lot in Bulacan as an Information Technology Park (IT Park).

Under Proclamation No. 316, Aquino designated a week ago the almost nine-hectare Pilipinas Development Corp. Information Techno Park located at Barangay Tambubong as an IT Park.

San Rafael town Mayor Lorna Silverio said the IT Park is expected to attract investors because of tax incentives. The companies that would operate in the IT Park will have tax breaks in the first three years of their operation. This includes exemption on levies for imported machines and equipment. “Maraming Bulacan job seekers ang makikinabang dito," Silverio said.

Accordingly, 200 workers will be needed by Asian Grains Corp. after it poured P300 million worth of investment in the park, Silverio added.

JB Kim, plant manager of the Korean-owned All About Inner Wear (AAIW) manufacturing company, said they will be shipping next week 60,000 boxes of undergarments to South Korea.

After employing about 200 Bulakenyo workers, AAIW will still need 500 new workers this year as other machineries arrive for their plant, Kim said.

Silverio said she hopes the IT Park will attract business process outsourcing firms (BPO) which earn $7 billion annually with more than 600,000 employees across the country.

Last December, Sutherland Global Services, a leading BPO company based in the United States, expressed interest in establishing a call center in San Rafael.

When asked if the bill in the US known as the US Call Center and Consumer Protection Act will affect the future of BPO in the IT Park, Silverio said the measure will “not prosper” even if it denies incentives to firms outsourcing in other countries.

“They (US Congress) could not stop American businessmen to go to countries with cheaper labor,” Silverio said.