Virus upends outsourcing as firms 'reshore' and embrace AI

MUMBAI/MANILA - Coronavirus is permanently shaking up the global outsourcing industry as lockdowns from Bangalore to Manila prompt firms to "reshore" jobs and, with AI, to move further away from needing humans at all.

Restrictions on normal activity in these countries and others have created a logistical nightmare for the managers of call centers and other back-office operations for foreign corporations.

Having their staff work from home is difficult because of rules governing the handling of sensitive material such as financial transactions for bank customers from Scotland to San Francisco.

Also, many workers in places like India and the Philippines live in crowded housing with poor-quality broadband, while some firms do not have enough equipment like laptops to provide to employees.

"The outsourcing industry doesn't lend itself to working from home," consultant Vivek Sood, author of "Outsourcing 3.0", told AFP.

"We are talking about companies which used to ask employees to leave even their pens and pencils outside the office because of security concerns."

TEMPORARY STAY ARRANGEMENTS

Desperate to stay operational, some firms have resorted to having staff live at their place of work.

Vodafone India, for example, says it has "organized temporary stay arrangements at our data center locations, (and) made food and groceries available at critical locations".

Similar practices by others have sparked the ire of trade unions.

Mylene Cabalona, president of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry Employees' Network (BIEN), told AFP the union had received reports of some workers "effectively quarantined and locked down in their offices".

The Financial Times in early April published photos that it said appeared to show workers sleeping on the floor of a call center in the Philippines, living in what they described as "subhuman" conditions.

DON'T CALL

Anthony Esguerra, who works at a Manila firm handling data for a Chinese online gaming company, admitted that 80 percent of its operations were disrupted.

"The workflow of processing players' requests really slowed down, since our internet access was limited compared to when we were working at the office," he told AFP.

Companies like telecom firm Spark New Zealand and Taiwanese computer maker Acer, which uses a Philippine facility to serve Australian and Kiwi customers, have simply told people not to call.

Australia's Telstra and Optus and Britain's Virgin Media -- all of which have offshore units in India and the Philippines -- have announced plans to recruit hundreds of staff back home.

Telstra, which heavily relies on its Philippine facility for customer service, initially said it would hire 1,000 temporary workers, but later raised that figure to 3,500. 

Optus sought to fill 500 vacancies, saying that while the company had previously believed "its diversity of locations would make us resilient to any disruptions", this was no longer the case.

OK COMPUTER

But the bigger lasting change from the pandemic will likely involve the wider use of artificial intelligence to handle tasks currently performed by human beings, experts said.

"AI doesn't go on strike, it can work 24/7 and throws up fewer complications," said Michael Czinkota, who teaches international business at Washington's Georgetown University.

Telstra, for instance, which was already planning to slash customer service calls by two-thirds by 2022, now intends to accelerate its use of AI.

"(We) will be using this as an opportunity to further digitize and automate our business," CEO Andy Penn told The Sydney Morning Herald this month.

TRAILBLAZER

"COVID-19 (has) achieved in six to eight weeks what the evangelists of automation have not managed... for more than five years," Ilan Oshri from the University of Auckland's Graduate School of Management told AFP.

But the "onshoring" of jobs and the increased use of AI will have a big impact on countries that for years have benefitted from taking on the back-office operations of multinationals.

India, in particular, was a trailblazer. As of 2017, the industry employed nearly four million Indians and raked in revenues of more than $150 billion, according to trade body NASSCOM.

In the Philippines, the industry started from scratch in the early 1990s but by 2019 its revenues were equal to 7.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product, employing 1.3 million people.

"We will have to rethink the whole outsourcing model," said consultant Sood.

"The assumption that you can offshore everything to Bangalore and Manila and relax has gone out of the window."

Agence France-Presse

BPO industry in Philippines seen benefitting as firms abroad cut costs due to pandemic

MANILA - The Philippines' business process outsourcing industry may stand to benefit from the "next wave" of outsourcing as companies around the world cut costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an industry expert said on Sunday. 

Derek Gallimore, CEO of Outsource Accelerator, said the Philippine BPO industry presents "incredible savings" to companies abroad who are looking to slash workforce expenses with uncertainties facing the global economy.

Gallimore said that while the average salary of a US worker is around $60,000 a year, a Filipino's salary would be just around $6,000 a year. 

Medium and small enterprises in English-speaking countries, which were badly affected by the pandemic, would likely look to outsourcing, Gallimore said. 

He also dismissed suggestions that technologies such as artificial intelligence are making outsourcing obsolete.

"Absolutely not, it is exactly the opposite," Gallimore said noting that the BPO industry in the Philippines is moving away from low-value repetitive tasks that are vulnerable to automation. 

High-value tasks like coding, design, marketing are replacing low-value outsourcing, he said. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Suspects in kidnapping of Cancun call center workers arrested

MEXICO CITY - Five suspects have been arrested in the kidnapping of more than two dozen call center workers who were likely caught in a business dispute in the Mexican tourist city of Cancun, a state official said on Wednesday.

Quintana Roo Attorney General Oscar Montes de Oca said the call center employees and the business owner were freed by law enforcement officers on Wednesday morning several hours after Tuesday night's kidnapping.

"Our investigation has led us to the preliminary conclusion that this was a dispute between owners of the business, and in fact one of the owners was among the 27 captives," Montes de Oca said.

The conflict may have arisen from an argument over withheld payment and employee mistreatment at the call center that sells vacation packages, the official said.

Montes de Oca also said he would investigate whether the suspects were drug cartel members.

The rescue was carried out by forces including the National Guard, a military police created this year by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to tackle entrenched violence across the country.

About eight armed people stormed the call center on Tuesday evening, taking 30 hostages into two vans without signs of struggle and driving them to a house on the outskirts of Cancun, Montes de Oca said, citing witness accounts.

When police entered the house, they found five heavily armed men standing guard over 27 of the call center employees, who were blindfolded. Montes de Oca said three captives had already been released.

The police detained three of the kidnappers immediately and captured the remaining two after a short chase, he said.

Officers also recovered five AR-15 style rifles and two 9-calibre guns from the house.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

AI may not take your job, but It could become your boss

When Conor Sprouls, a customer service representative in the call center of insurance giant MetLife talks to a customer over the phone, he keeps one eye on the bottom-right corner of his screen. There, in a little blue box, AI tells him how he’s doing.

Talking too fast? The program flashes an icon of a speedometer, indicating that he should slow down.

Sound sleepy? The software displays an “energy cue,” with a picture of a coffee cup.

Not empathetic enough? A heart icon pops up.

For decades, people have fearfully imagined armies of hyper-efficient robots invading offices and factories, gobbling up jobs once done by humans. But in all of the worry about the potential of artificial intelligence to replace rank-and-file workers, we may have overlooked the possibility it will replace the bosses, too.

Sprouls and the other call center workers at his office in Warwick, Rhode Island, still have plenty of human supervisors. But the software on their screens — made by Cogito, an AI company in Boston — has become a kind of adjunct manager, always watching them. At the end of every call, Sprouls’ Cogito notifications are tallied and added to a statistics dashboard that his supervisor can view. If he hides the Cogito window by minimizing it, the program notifies his supervisor.

Cogito is one of several AI programs used in call centers and other workplaces. The goal, according to Joshua Feast, Cogito’s chief executive, is to make workers more effective by giving them real-time feedback.

“There is variability in human performance,” Feast said. “We can infer from the way people are speaking with each other whether things are going well or not.”

The goal of automation has always been efficiency, but in this new kind of workplace, AI sees humanity itself as the thing to be optimized. Amazon uses complex algorithms to track worker productivity in its fulfillment centers, and can automatically generate the paperwork to fire workers who don’t meet their targets, as The Verge uncovered this year. (Amazon has disputed that it fires workers without human input, saying that managers can intervene in the process.) IBM has used Watson, its AI platform, during employee reviews to predict future performance and claims it has a 96 percent accuracy rate.

Then there are the startups. Cogito, which works with large insurance companies like MetLife and Humana as well as financial and retail firms, says it has 20,000 users. Percolata, a Silicon Valley company that counts Uniqlo and 7-Eleven among its clients, uses in-store sensors to calculate a “true productivity” score for each worker, and rank workers from most to least productive.

Management by algorithm is not a new concept. In the early 20th century, Frederick Winslow Taylor revolutionized the manufacturing world with his “scientific management” theory, which tried to wring inefficiency out of factories by timing and measuring each aspect of a job. More recently, Uber, Lyft and other on-demand platforms have made billions of dollars by outsourcing conventional tasks of human resources — scheduling, payroll, performance reviews — to computers.

But using AI to manage workers in conventional, 9-to-5 jobs has been more controversial. Critics have accused companies of using algorithms for managerial tasks, saying that automated systems can dehumanize and unfairly punish employees. And while it’s clear why executives would want AI that can track everything their workers do, it’s less clear why workers would.

“It is surreal to think that any company could fire their own workers without any human involvement,” Marc Perrone, the president of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents food and retail workers, said in a statement about Amazon in April.

In the gig economy, management by algorithm has also been a source of tension between workers and the platforms that connect them with customers. This year, drivers for Postmates, DoorDash and other on-demand delivery companies protested a method of calculating their pay, using an algorithm, that put customer tips toward guaranteed minimum wages — a practice that was nearly invisible to drivers, because of the way the platform obscures the details of worker pay.

There were no protests at MetLife’s call center. Instead, the employees I spoke with seemed to view their Cogito software as a mild annoyance at worst. Several said they liked getting pop-up notifications during their calls, although some said they had struggled to figure out how to get the “empathy” notification to stop appearing. (Cogito says the AI analyzes subtle differences in tone between the worker and the caller and encourages the worker to try to mirror the customer’s mood.)

MetLife, which uses the software with 1,500 of its call center employees, says using the app has increased its customer satisfaction by 13 percent.

“It actually changes people’s behavior without them knowing about it,” said Christopher Smith, MetLife’s head of global operations. “It becomes a more human interaction.”

Still, there is a creepy sci-fi vibe to a situation in which AI surveils human workers and tells them how to relate to other humans. And it is reminiscent of the “workplace gamification” trend that swept through corporate America a decade ago, when companies used psychological tricks borrowed from video games, like badges and leader boards, to try to spur workers to perform better.

Phil Libin, the chief executive of All Turtles, an AI startup studio in San Francisco, recoiled in horror when I told him about my call center visit.

“That is a dystopian hellscape,” Libin said. “Why would anyone want to build this world where you’re being judged by an opaque, black-box computer?”

Defenders of workplace AI might argue that these systems are not meant to be overbearing. Instead, they’re meant to make workers better by reminding them to thank the customer, to empathize with the frustrated claimant on Line 1 or to avoid slacking off on the job.

The best argument for workplace AI may be situations in which human bias skews decision-making, such as hiring. Pymetrics, a New York startup, has made inroads in the corporate hiring world by replacing the traditional résumé screening process with an AI program that uses a series of games to test for relevant skills. The algorithms are then analyzed to make sure they are not creating biased hiring outcomes, or favoring one group over another.

“We can tweak data and algorithms until we can remove the bias. We can’t do that with a human being,” said Frida Polli, Pymetrics’ chief executive.

Using AI to correct for human biases is a good thing. But as more AI enters the workplace, executives will have to resist the temptation to use it to tighten their grip on their workers and subject them to constant surveillance and analysis. If that happens, it won’t be the robots staging an uprising.


2019 New York Times News Service

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Amazon.com opens first customer service office in Philippines

MANILA - Amazon.com said Tuesday it launched its first customer service office in the Philippines, creating 300 new jobs and up to 1,000 more by year-end at its base in Cebu City.

The world's largest online retailer is betting on customer service in the Philippines as government and industry officials prepared to shift over 1 million BPO workers to higher skilled roles that will not be replaced by artificial intelligence.

The site will provide support for Amazon customers in North America and the United Kingdom. It employs customer service associates, team managers and group managers, the internet giant said in a statement.

"We are excited to be investing in Cebu and working with such talented people, especially since Filipinos are known to bring high levels of experience and passion to their work,” said Amazon vice president for Worldwide Customer Service Tom Weiland.

The Philippines has hosted Amazon Web Services since 2016 and the country is "integral" to the growth of the cloud platform in Southeast Asia, the company said.

The company said job opportunities for its customer service operations in Cebu are posted on its website.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

BPO workers bet on 'human touch' to ride automation wave

MANILA - Business process outsourcing workers said they were betting on the "human touch" to keep their jobs, as the industry looks towards artificial intelligence.

The industry that employs roughly 1.15 million people expects that the shift to AI for mechanical tasks had the potential to displace 40,000 low-skilled workers while creating opportunities for nearly 700,000 with higher skills.

Potential job losses are a "myth" as companies that outsource operations develop "hybrid digital and live interaction agents," said SITEL chief operating officer Craig Reines.

 Michael Noche, a 32-year-old training manager with Ibex Global, said he was "not threatened at all" by the looming automation wave.

"AI might have its own advantages but still we will not be able to deny the fact that human talent is something a lot more deeper and is indispensable," Noche told ABS-CBN News.

Call center supervisor Keith Rosales is similarly optimistic.

"Having AI do all these in the future is not possible. Human touch would always be needed when it comes to customer service," Rosales told ABS-CBN News.

"Customers still like to speak to a live agent instead of having to deal with a computer or robot. My company is trying to introduce self-service channels but so far, customers still rather call the hotline with live agents because it is more personalized," he said.

English proficiency and a service-oriented culture give Filipino BPO workers an edge over other outsourcing hubs said SITEL's Reines.

"There's no such thing as singularity replacement of human capability but it's rather how do we manage it," said Gilbert Camasura, president of recruitment firm Asia Select.

With the advent of automation, team supervisor Kevin Paolo dela Cruz looks forward to more years in BPO.

"I feel excited about it, I am working for a company with a goal of being innovative, to put the business to the next level, and it will help a lot of people who's looking for a decent, well compensated job," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

BPO automation may displace 40,000, add 700,000 jobs

MANILA - The shift to automation can displace 40,000 low-skilled workers in the business process outsourcing industry, but will open up job opportunities for nearly 700,000 higher-skilled counterparts, an industry official said Tuesday.

Low-skilled workers include receptionists and clerks. Job demand will shift to medium and high-skilled jobs that offer higher compensation, said Alex Tined, program director of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines.

"We need to teach them the new jobs. The challenge now is to make sure that we have people to do the mid and high skill jobs," Tined said.

Tined said some 388,000 jobs would be added to the middle level and another 309,000 to the high skill level, bringing the industry workforce to 1.8 million by 2022 from the current 1.14 million.

The BPO industry is a key job generator and source of dollar earnings that help strengthen the peso.

Tined said the Philippines had fallen to third place among the world's top BPO destinations, as India and China lure companies with more advanced technologies.

China is a relative newcomer to the race, previously dominated by India and the Philippines.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

BPO sector to hire 100,000 workers yearly until 2022

The country's business process outsourcing sector is expected to grow further in the coming years despite political uncertainties here and abroad.

Industry leaders said the country's education system needs to level up to provide Filipinos with the skills needed to get hired. Jekki Pascual reports. -- ANC Market Edge, November 30, 2016

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Why staff turnover in Philippine BPO industry is falling

MANILA, Philippines -- Staff turnover has always been a big concern for business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the Philippines.

But it seems that many BPO companies have found new ways to keep their employees.

A recent survey by global professional services company Towers Watson showed that the staff turnover rate in the Philippine BPO industry has fallen to 20 percent in 2014, the lowest since 2007.

This is an improvement from the 33 percent, 24 percent and 26 percent attrition rates in 2011, 2012 and 2013 respectively.

Vangie Daquilanea, Global Data Services Practice Head of Towers Watson Philippines, noted the BPO industry has adopted various strategies in talent acquisition, such as expanding operations outside the National Capital Region (NCR).

"The sector, though fast-growing, has adopted various strategies in talent acquisition... to tap talent in Cebu, Davao and Southern Luzon. This has, in turn, minimized talent movements within the NCR, registering the lowest attrition rate in the last seven years," she said.

The Towers Watson survey also showed salaries in Central Visayas are about 23 percent lower compared to salaries in the NCR.

"(This makes Central Visayas) a viable location for BPO companies to operate in. This further supports an international research on the top global outsourcing destinations, identifying Cebu in the top 8," the company said.

Higher salaries

Another possible reason why BPO employees are staying with their companies is the increase in salaries.

The Towers Watson survey showed salary increases in the BPO industry in the Philippines averaged 7 percent in 2014.

Salary increases in the industry are expected to be stable at 7 to 7.5 percent increase in the next two years.

"The companies budgeting for this salary increase rate typically use a performance matrix where exemplary performers are greatly rewarded, and non-performers are given zero to minimal increases. This is being done by companies to give emphasis on their compensation principle of paying for performance," the company added.

Employees in the outsourcing sector usually have a compensation mix where they receive high guaranteed compensation and a minimal annual performance bonus equivalent to about 1 month to 1.5 months' pay.

BPO employees are also being taken care of by their employers. The Towers Watson survey also shed light on the benefit programs of BPO companies, which have some of the most robust health and wellness programs.

Companies offers various programs for employees such as stress/risk assessment programs, health screening, counselling, fitness competitions, and smoking cessation programs.

Towers Watson’s annual BPO/Shared Services/Call Center Industry Total Rewards Survey is the largest compensation survey report in the Philippines. Eight companies, including those from IT, knowledge process and business process outsourcing sectors, participated in the survey.

"Our survey contains comprehensive analysis and findings that provides insights into current compensation practices and trends in the industry, helping companies make informed decisions about total reward programs for its employees," Daquilanea said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Challenges facing BPO employees in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - Working in a call center is a tough kind of job that may not be desired by most individual.

Some people may think that a BPO job leads to an unhealthy lifestyle. Unhealthy in the sense that they sleep during regular working hours, and are wide-awake late at night or early dawn.

Only few folks have known the real sacrifice behind the stages that most agents carry. People who turn their ways to work in a call center have their own stories and motivations in life why they push their selves into this kind of vineyard.

Some of the common reasons why they choose to work in this kind of life are the salary, the benefits offered by the company, the great experience and the chance of getting a good career.

Life in a BPO industry is very dynamic. If you were a person who has great determination and focus, it would not be hard for you to be recognized and simply get a post in the company.

However, that may sounds vague sometimes because not all your expectation can easily be reach. It would be a bucket of trials and adjustments once you venture yourself into much awaited yet challenging world.

Talking of challenges, let’s discuss the normal adversities that are often encountered by most people working in the BPO industry.

Here are some of the common pressures that exist in a BPO industry:

Hitting Business Standards

It is very common in an industry or any institution to set a business goal. Being in line with the BPO employees nowadays, it is your goal to meet up the requirements that the company ask you to perform. It can’t be denied that this can add up the pressure in absorbing and adjusting the traditional practices in a call center.

Dealing with Indifference

It is also normal in a BPO industry that injustices happen since every program are often divided into different folds of team. Different behaviors and attitude of an agent are quite normal in this kind of environment. Peer pressure is also one of the subjects that ignite the temperature that roams around the team. It’s really not easy to deal with different individuals and understanding difficult people.

Handling Relationships
Many relationships are often ended in a single beat of time due to the irregular schedule, practiced by most agents. Working in a BPO industry sometimes deprives your moment to spend a long week with your family.

Coping with Health Issues

There are two common health conditions that normally exist when working in a BPO industry. It would either be a hypertension which known as High blood pressure or the hypotension that used to give you a lower blood pressure. An agent should be wise enough in taking care of her body, by taking vitamins and supplements.

Understanding the Schedule

It is understood that most of the BPO has different schedules. We have the graveyard and the morning shifts. There are teams or departments that use to shift schedules weekly and it seems to be a daunting task.

Life can only be complicated if you don’t know how to discipline and handle pressure in every type of work. So, if you are aiming to have a good career in a BPO industry, be flexible in every way!

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Software giant SAP to set up BPO operations in PH

MANILA, Philippines - Good news for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

SAP, one of the world's largest software companies, says it is expanding its operations here in the Philippines.

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Makati, Adair Fox-Martin, newly appointed president of SAP Asia-Pacific and Japan, said they will establish a small "call center" operation in the country which would open up sales and marketing jobs.

"We will start off with a small nucleus and double it and double it as it continues to grow. Approximately, 50 staff in the first instance," she told ANC.

SAP has set up its human resources department in the Philippines, which caters to all its employees around the world.

The multinational company has been in the country for 15 years. - ANC

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

BPO firm SPi Global expands to China

MANILA, Philippines – Business process outsourcing (BPO) provider SPi Global will expand services to China following the completed acquisition of Xian-based Bachieve International Inc.

The acquisition will allow SPi Global, jointly owned by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and CVC Capital Partners, to tap a new market.

“China is a welcome addition to our global footprint. Having the option of delivering services from China will benefit our existing and future clients with the vast resources and talents available in the region,” SPi Global president and chief executive officer Maulik Parekh said.

Parekh said the expansion will also boost the firm’s delivery capabilities in Asia as well as its existing operational strengths in the Philippines and India.

He added that Xi’an is an ideal location because it serves as the hub for other key markets in Asia where there is high demand for publishing and content conversion solutions.

“We believe Xi’An is the ideal location to capitalize on this wave of growth,” said Parekh.

Around 260 personnel at SPi Global ( Xi’An ) Information Technology Limited will focus on BPO, information technology, outsourcing, management consulting services, and call center solutions.

SPi Global has 30 global offices and facilities in the Philippines, US, Netherlands, India, Vietnam, and Australia with around 19,000 employees engaged in customer relations, content and healthcare.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

3 Pinoys fall in $10-million scam in Thailand

MANILA, Philippines - Three Filipinos were among 15 foreigners arrested by Thai authorities for allegedly running a call center scam that duped people into wiring more than Bt320 million (more than US$10 million or more than P400 million) into their bank accounts.

A report Saturday in the Thai English language newspaper The Nation did not identify the suspects but said six are British, two American, two Romanian, three Filipinos, a German and a South African.

The report said the suspects were arrested at an apartment in Sukhumvit Soi 13 from where they operated the scam, which was based on bogus stock market trading.

The Nation quoted Thai police as saying the suspects, posing as independent brokers, would tell their victims, mostly Westerners, that they could make a 95-percent profit on their investments in return for a 25-percent cut of the profits.

The ring allegedly had a Swiss bank account from which they would transfer money to Malaysia and then to Thailand.

source: interaksyon.com

Call center agents' health in near crisis - DOH

MANILA, Philippines -- Call center agents working graveyard shifts face serious health problems that are nearing crisis levels, a representative from the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Dr. Anthony Leachon, a consultant of the DOH on non-communicable diseases (NCD), said the lifestyle-related illnesses such as stroke, heart disease and cancer have risen at an alarming rate among call center workers.

“Apart from HIV, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Ateneo Univeristy Clinical Psychology department were surprised to see that there is a surge right now of epidemic proportions of call center agents having NCDs,” Leachon said.

The cardiologist said that he, the ILO and the Ateneo will undertake research on this subject since the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is a billion-dollar business for the country.

“If your call center workers are sick—you have an economic workforce now in a health crisis,” he said.

The industry sees a high incidence of NCDs among BPO workers at 60 percent, and Leachon said a health crisis is in the offing if this goes up to 70 or 80 percent.

Healthcare workers blame smoking for the rise of NCDs to 45 percent among BPO workers and the entire population.

According to the 2008 National Nutrition and Health Survey (NNHS), smoking does not just cause cancer and lung diseases but is also the number one cause of strokes and heart attacks. Smoking is estimated to have caused 50,000 deaths a year and caused more strokes and heart attacks than diabetes, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol.

Graveyard shifts

Because of the shifts in their working hours, BPO workers have a propensity to smoke and ruin their diet while foregoing physical exercise.

The DOH said smoking incidence is directly proportional to the rise in the number of BPO workers, especially those who are working graveyard shifts. Leachon said these young workers have the means or the dispensable income to buy cigarettes.

“It’s dangerous, it’s a double whammy. When you are awake and on the Internet, it’s more opportunity for you to smoke and eat,” Leachon said.

He has analyzed the data on workers assigned to graveyard shifts and found that these employees have higher incidence of lifestyle diseases.

NCDs among the younger set

Leachon said he sees around 30 patients a day, with 30 to 40 percent of whom considered young.

“Before, we used to believe that the disease in males would start at 45 years old and 55 years old for females post-menopausal. I see males right now at age 30 to 35 years old sick with non-communicable diseases and females 35 to 40 years old,” the cardiologist said.

According to Dr. Tony Dans of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, NCDs are not the illnesses of the old since it is lifestyle-related.

However, there is a misconception that lifestyle is not a choice but rather is shaped by the environment.

“If healthy food is expensive, people will eat unhealthy. If there are no places to exercise, people will not exercise. If tobacco is cheap, people will smoke,” Dans said.

Because of this, doctors and the DOH are supporting the hike in so-called sin taxes pending before the House of Representatives.

DOH claimed that by making the cigarettes more expensive, the incidence of smoking among the poor—who, according to NNHS, smoke more than the rich—would be curbed.

source: interaksyon.com