BPO companies in the Philippines are looking at making a killing after the $1 billion Satyam scam by getting businesses diverted from India.

The country’s top politician, Representative Joseph Santiago, made no bones about dissuading MNC companies from seeking BPO services in India. He said firms in the Philippines could reap the bonanza with more Western firms diverting business to the Southeast Asian country says a report published in the Economic Times.

The disclosures about Satyam would "force Western firms to rethink their plans to do new business, or contract out additional back office work to BPO providers based in India", Congressman Santiago said in a press statement on Monday. "The Philippines is in a superb position to capture whatever outsourcing business that India stands to lose on account of Satyam's troubles."

The Philippines media also had speculated transfer of contracts to the country after the Mumbai terror attacks. Global property consultant CB Richard Ellis had then said the attacks would likely drive more business to the Philippines as firms re-evaluated the security situation in India.

IT analysts in Singapore, however were quick to dispense Santiago's claims saying there could be no comparison of the scale of the IT and BPO operations in the two countries.

According to Philippine Software Industry Association figures, the country's IT firms earned $423 million in revenues from outsourcing and product software in 2007, up from $200 million in 2005. With 28,000 software engineers employed in the sector, the country has set a target of $1 billion by 2010.