Dumaguete in 2050

I had a strange dream the other night. I dreamed that I woke up one day to the year 2050 and saw the Dumaguete of the future.

Almost all roads of Dumaguete were cemented and the main commercial thoroughfares were ruled either by pedestrians or bicycles. Cars and other four-wheeled vehicles were consigned to areas like the boulevard and Real street.

But the thing that struck me most about the Dumaguete of the future is that I couldn't see many people loitering or walking all over the city. In fact, it seemed like the population of the city decreased compared to today's population. Commercial activity greatly improved, with many stores open 24/7.

And, like clockwork, the number of people swelled every sunup and sundown. Then the streets were so busy for about one hour and things seemed to go back to normal again. By normal, I meant that there were about the same number of people going around the city at nighttime and the daytime.

It turned out that many of these Dumagueteños worked for call centers. Dumaguete became the "Call Center Capital" of the Philippines outside of Manila, because of the relatively high acceptance rate of call center applicants, when compared with the rest of the country. The many billboards inviting fresh graduates to "Work in the United States (timezone)!" attested to the very competitive hiring practices of call centers and other similar companies.

That dream may have been caused by the news that call centers and the other companies in Dumaguete servicing outsourcing companies in the United States have declared that they will be hiring more personnel in Dumaguete to cope with the personnel shortage. These Information Communication Technology-based companies see a continued rise in the demand for their services. So popular is this demand for call center agents that even Silliman University, Foundation University and the Asian College of Science and Technology are thinking of adopting the training module of these call center companies in order to produce better English-speaking graduates.

As an English professor at Silliman said, this fad is threatening to turn the University into a trade school. Say goodbye to the "well-rounded education" that the graduates are expected to have at the end of their four years in school. The name of the game now is survival by one's ability to speak English.

This fad is growing stronger as the Philippines is also making a name for itself in the job outsourcing market. It is slowly trying to catch up with India and other countries that offer English speaking contact center agents for American companies. The job of a call center agent is a relatively good-paying job. But most call center agents work at night, while the rest of the country is sleeping, because that is when most of the calls from the U.S. and other western countries come in. And these workers are in demand. I know of many fresh graduates who are working in call centers today.

From them, I know that the job of a call center agent has a very rapid turnover rate. Some of these people I know have already tried three to four call centers.

For as long as the wage rates in the Philippines remain much lower than the wage rates in the U.S., there will always be a demand for Philippine call center agents. As for Dumaguete, it may still be too early to really assess the impact of these ICT businesses in terms of dollars or pesos. But it will come. I saw it all--in 2050!*

back to top