Half of around 1,000 IT-Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) locators, which cover BPOs, transferred to the Board of Investments from Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) to continue supporting work-from-home arrangements while keeping their incentives, an official said on Thursday.

The government last year ordered the return-to-office of BPOs to continue their activities within ecozones, as mandated by law. Failure to do so will result in loss of incentives.

This resulted in a number of appeals from the sector, which the Department of Finance resolved by allowing the transfer of BPOs to the BOI which has no restriction on the area of operations.

"Right now, we have more than 1,000 IT ecozones. About 50 percent of them opted to transfer to BOI so that they can implement work-from-home. Half of them remains with PEZA, meaning they can have their operations entirely within the ecozones," PEZA Deputy Director General Vivian Santos told ANC.

• A fight for the fate of work: As gov't nixes WFH, BPOs say hybrid is the future

Santos said PEZA was still receiving applications for the development of IT parks and centers despite the transfers to the BOI.

PEZA is also opening up to other types of investments and expanding to the countryside, she said.

• PEZA approves P6.4 billion investments in January
• Incentives board extends deadline for BPO transfer to BOI in support of remote work
• Industry group lauds approval of BPO transfer to BOI for remote, hybrid setup