PEZA director general Charito Plaza said: "The Office of the President already wants to legalise online gaming,” local media The Philippine Star reports.

"They asked PEZA for us to allow to highlight BPOs [business-process outsourcing companies] who are into online gaming,” Plaza said.

"After meeting with the PEZA board and the BPO association, we reached a consensus that we will not allow [online gaming] because first, gambling is not a mandate of PEZA. Second, allowing it might affect operations of our legitimate BPO locators,” Plaza added.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte last February signed an executive order further regulating the issuing of gambling licences, including for online gaming.

Source: GMB / The Philippine Star