Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra asked the Senate Monday to augment the funds of the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Cybercrime Division to enable the two agencies to improve their fight against cybercrimes especially in this pandemic.
(TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Guevarra said the DoJ and the NBI, an agency under the supervision of the DoJ, has a cyber security unit that is tasked to monitor and address legal issues concerning online interactions, including cybersex, child trafficking, and pornography, theft to illegal data access, and libel.
“In both agencies, we are hoping for an improvement or additional allocation for these two units. Because they are performing a mandate that is so relevant at this time considering that many online crimes and offenses are being committed through cyberspace,” Guevarra told the Senate Committee on Finance subcommittee hearing the DoJ’s proposed P22.5-billion budget for 2021.
“So we need improved technologies, capacity building along these lines, so were really hoping that more appropriations can be devoted to improving the resources of our cybercrime offices both at the DoJ and the NBI,” the DoJ chief said.
Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid agreed with Guevarra’s proposal, noting that the NBI only received a P1.9-billion budget for next year.
“Kailangan po nila ng P300 million; ‘yun ang karagdagan na budget ang gusto nila (They need around P300 million; that’s the budget that they need),” Lapid said.
Guevarra confirmed that the NBI is actually seeking additional funds to procure digital forensic tools and create more forensic laboratories. But the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) did not approve the proposed budget submitted by the NBI.
Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. also said he supports the proposal to augment the DoJ and NBI budget for cybercrime because that is one of the major problems the country is facing now besides the pandemic.
“We really need to address these cybercrime (issues) dahil palaki ng palaki ang problemang hinaharap natin dito. Medyo nakakatakot na, marami nang nalooloko sa (We have a growing problem here. It’s getting scary, because a lot of people are now being conned in) cyberspace,” Revilla said.
Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said he would try his best to address the funding requirements of the DoJ and NBI cybercrime efforts, and asked Guevarra to submit to the committee a copy of their report on their cybercrime budget.