Intel Philippines said to close down its 10-year old manufacturing plant in Cavite later this year. A few years ago, the company closed down its Makati plant in order to concentrate on its Cavite operations. According to some insiders, one of Intel Philippines’ reasons to halt its south of manila facility is because of rising production costs attributed by high fuel prices, political instability and waging electricity costs and taxes.
Despite of holding the 2nd place in all of Intel’s Asian plants, Intel has announced the “ramping down” of its Cavite-based semiconductor plant is by reason of “building structure integrity.” I’ve checked some local tech forums to see if this is true; and some Intel employees posted that Intel is currently in the process of transferring the majority of its Philippine-based operations to Malaysia, Vietnam and China, and will leave the country in 6 months. Some have estimated that Intel will reduce its operations in the Philippines by more than 80% and will keep the ~20% indefinitely. However, Intel also made it clear that it wouldn’t leave the country for good as it will convert the “leftovers” of the plant to a flash memory facility by Intel and STMicroelectronics’ Numonyx. This was only a rumor a few years ago, but the rumor has been “confirmed” when Intel made loads of investments and improvements in all of its Asian facilities except the Philippines.
Intel started its Makati plant in 1974 and the facility in Cavite currently holds 3,000+ employees; which ranges from manufacturing division, techs & engineers, managers, executives and officials. Intel Philippines has been known to be one of the Philippines’ consistent employers and the tech-giant is also a big name in domestic charity and public education. An average or starting Intel Philippines employee receives approx. PHP7,500 base salary.
Intel Philippines also holds a big share in Philippine export and holds the biggest production share (22%) in the Cavite area, it is also the first Intel plant to manufacture the Intel Centrino and then later, Pentium 4. A lot of small local companies such as suppliers, agencies, etc. rely too much on Intel Philippines as a major clientele. With the soon-to-be absence of Intel’s major local plant, it seems that other companies (small or big) would follow too. Intel’s exit in the local manufacturing scene is a big hit in both employment area and economic strength, and global competitiveness of our country.
It’s also been reported that Accenture, one of the biggest BPOs in the Philippines, is currently “trimming down” its operations in the country, and a lot of call centers would follow suit. Now with these present issues, a lot of Filipinos have doubted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s “ramdam ang asenso” (translated: we can feel our country’s improvement) statements next to the claimed 7.3-percent GDP growth of our country. No wonder the Department of Foreign Affairs caters thousands and thousands of applicants a day: a proof that plenty wants to leave this country ASAP and find livelihood abroad.
On a much lighter note: I can still remember my EPoX 4G4A Series motherboard had an Intel 82845G Chipset made in the Philippines, and also my Intel Pentium 4 B 2.66GHz (which runs Vista Ultimate SP1 very well) is Pinoy-made 
Posted by Tofu on Tue 04/15/2008 at 11:39:54 UTC+10 under Business & Finance, Tech & Online.
Post URL: http://www.zai3p.com/blog/intel-philippines-closing-down/
Tagged: economy, Intel, Philippines, Plant
While it is comforting news that Intel will not totally leave the Philippines for good, we can only hope that their lesser physical presence would still maintain their commitment to charity and public education in the country. Intel Philippines has done so much for the welfare and improvement of education in the Philippines. Recently, I read the tech giant has turned over approximately P80 million to DepEd Sec. Jesli Lapus for the 31 public schools in Gen. Trias, Cavite. They were also pivotal in the operations of the Philippine National Red Cross for developing a technology that will help it quickly respond to disasters. Having said all of these, I personally think that Intel¹s closing down of its Cavite plant would be a very big loss and a sentimental occasion for all the people whose lives were changed in one way or another by the company. Cheesy as it may sound but Intel has given a spark of hope for every Filipino and every Filipino child who was given a chance for a better and up to date kind of schooling.