President Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday said a business process outsourcing (BPO) company has denied reports that it had laid off hundreds of Filipino employees and was in fact looking for more workers to hire.

“We checked with that center, Advanced Contact Solutions (ACS), and they totally denied it,” she said in a speech at the launch of the UP-Ayala Land Techno Hub at the University of the Philippines on Friday. According to Ms Arroyo, ACS said it had been receiving calls from other call centers which expressed interest in hiring the laid-off workers.

“But ACS said we’re not laying off anyone, we’re looking for more,” she said. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines called the attention of the Department of Labor and Employment to the supposed mass layoffs, urging the DOLE to redeploy the displaced workers to other BPOs.

According to TUCP president Ernesto Herrera, the layoffs were prompted by “declining business volumes” for ACS arising from the US recession. Despite forecasts of a gloomy holiday season, the President remained upbeat about the economy and was confident that Filipinos’ resilience would see them through. She said she was leaving for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in Peru with optimism about the future. The President left yesterday for Los Angeles, where she will meet with the Filipino community, en route to Lima to attend the Apec summit on Nov. 22 and 23.

“We will express to the other leaders of Apec the hope of our people that in seeking common ground on ways to coordinate assistance to our economies, we must do so in a way that puts the interest of the poor and the dispossessed ahead of the rich and the powerful,” she said. (more…)