Stories by Mike Comerford
Photographs by Mark Welsh
Daily Herald Staff
Second of five parts

With his computer screen reflected in his tinted glasses, Ryan Martin of Manila works the night shift at IBM Plaza in Eastwood City, Philippines. His employer, Advanced Contact Solutions, sells trade magazines to Chicago area professionals.

MANILA, Philippines - Yuppie Filipinos fill the al fresco dining area of the Greenbelt Mall in Manila's financial district.

Seattle's Best, Cafe Havana and Starbucks dot the perimeter as people sit at their tables under palm trees eating Cuban tapas and drinking Brazilian coffee.

At about 9 p.m., a short- sleeved 2004 graduate of the Wharton MBA Program, Julius Gorospe, points to the emerging nightscape.

"See those buildings light up?" he says. "Some aren't going to shut off the lights all night because of the call centers."

Call centers are part of the new economy of the Philippines, aiming to provide fresh sources of jobs to the upcoming boom of workers. Almost half of the 86.2 million people in the Philippines are younger than 20 years old.

The Philippines will surpass India by 2008 as home to the world's largest call center industry, according to XMG Inc., a Manila-based research and advisory firm. By that time, XMG estimates, the call center industry will generate $3 billion a year in revenues.

Gorospe is a freelance consultant for Philippine outsourcing businesses. At 33, he could make a lucrative living in the United States, but believes it is his "duty" to help stem the country's brain drain by supporting its fledgling outsource sector.

Gorospe and others like him believe they are at the cusp of a globalization trend that favors the Philippines' low-cost, English-speaking, Western-savvy labor pool.

And the Philippines has the infrastructure for the industry. Eastwood City skyscrapers in metro Manila have some of the most advanced call banks in the world, Gorospe says.

The proliferation of call centers in Eastwood City has even sparked a mini-building boom.

On the 25th floor of the Elmakati Center in Manila is Advanced Contact Solutions, a one-time casualty of Manila's version of the dot-com bust. In its latest incarnation, it sells trade magazine subscriptions via the telephone.

At 10 p.m., about 150 people, most 25 or younger, sit in a room of enclosed cubicles outfitted with phones and computers. They'll be working until 6 a.m., when many catch a couple hours of sleep before going to school or a second job.

As their shift begins, it is 11 a.m. in Chicago, a prime time to catch the business trade magazine readers Advanced Contact seeks.

Overall, the industry estimates the number of "seats," or callers, in the Philippines could double this year to 80,000. Advanced Contact's turnaround began last year when it grew to 250 employees. It expects to soon surpass 2,000.

With chronic unemployment and under-employment in Manila topping 20 percent by some estimates, call centers have their pick of workers. Employers often favor college graduates, Gorospe says.

The average retention rate in Manila is two years, about double the U.S. call center rate, according to Philippine government statistics.

In the context of the Philippine economy, the pay is pretty good. It can be as much as $300 a month, about what an entry-level doctor makes, Advanced Contact officials said.

Advanced Contact Solutions' Marvin Ordonez rests his head on a pillow as he makes calls to the United States from metro Manila. Thousands of call center workers have to work at night because it is daytime in the United States.

The outsourcing of U.S. jobs to foreign countries gets blamed for as many as 250,000 U.S. call center jobs being lost in the last three years.

Currently, the Philippine off-shore call center industry estimates it employs 60,000 people.

Still, its growth rate may slow as the labor pool becomes taxed. Another 60,000 jobs will have to be filled this year alone and it is unclear how much training will be needed as the industry dips deeper into the job pool.

Minger Mallaci, 30, calls and trains callers for Advanced Contact. She puts applicants through a battery of exercises, including accent and culture training.

"I teach them how Americans mush their words," she says. "They say, 'Ya know' not 'Do you know.'"

Many Filipinos speak with an accent, often thick with the influence of one of the country's 100 languages and dialects, she says.

And she urges students to drop the Philippine tendency to turn the 'ph' sound into a 'p.'

Mallaci, citing a widely held belief, says her students learn fast because many Filipinos have a gift for mimicry.

Still, with modernization comes the fear of losing traditional cultural traits.

Mallaci worries when she hears her friends using American expressions or the Philippine version of "valley girl speak," they call "college girl talk."

"If you completely learn the cultural I.D. of another culture, you may want to give up your own old ways," she says. "I don't know. It's kind of weird."

IN PART 2:
• Trying hard to help heal
• Why nurses leave the Philippines
• Manila call centers may surpass India
• More photos from part 2