Manila, the Philippines’ capital, is the third leading business process outsourcing (BPO) destination in the world, according to Tholons Inc. The advisory firm recently released its list of 2013 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations which had India’s Bangalore and Mumbai at first and second place. Manila was at no. 4 in the 2012 and 2010 Tholons surveys. 

Cebu, another highly urbanized city in the Philippines, is at no. 8. The ranking is a notch higher than last year’s and 2010’s ranking for the city. Tholons surveys in 2008 and 2009 have mentioned Cebu as an emerging city. 

This year’s top 100 list has five other cities from the Philippines: Davao at 70, Santa Rosa, Laguna at 84, Iloilo City at 93, Bacolod City at 94, and Baguio City at 99. Baguio City enters the survey for the first time this year. 

The Tholons 2013 survey named the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia among “the most promising Southeast Asian destinations in 2012.”

“Among the three, the Philippines has have the most vibrant IT-BPO industry, led by the emerged outsourcing destinations in the country, Manila NCR, which claimed the third top outsourcing destination spot in this year’s list, and deposing India’s Delhi NCR (now 4th),” the Tholons report said.

The same survey said that the Philippines, described as “today’s current global market leader for voice BPO,” has shown that “there’s still more to gain in the services globalization industry.”

The Tholons 2013 survey statements, published in abs-cbnnews.com, also mentioned that “based on the events of 2012, the Philippines continued to garner interest from large, Western providers, not only as an offshore delivery location, but likewise as a potential rich domestic market for IT Services.”

The top 10 cities in the 2013 survey are Bangalore, Mumbai, Manila, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Cebu, Dublin, and Krakow.