FIRB's grudging acceptance of reality

FOR the moment, it seems, the dispute over the government's demand that information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) firms return to having 100 percent onsite staffing has been resolved: Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, in his capacity as chairman of the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), has announced that IT-BPO firms registered under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) can retain their 70 percent onsite-30 percent work-from-home hybrid staffing arrangements "indefinitely," or at least until the FIRB comes to a definite decision on whether or not to allow it to continue.