Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to clamp down on Internet service providers (ISPs) enabling online child pornography, reports of which doubled at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gatchalian said the President’s directive to curb the surge of online sexual exploitation of children adds urgency to the need to amend current laws on human trafficking.

The chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture said Congress should expedite the passage of Senate Bill No. 1794 into law to improve the standards, guidelines, and methodologies on surveillance, interception, investigation and prosecution of different forms of human trafficking—including prostitution and pornography especially during this time of a pandemic.

The senator said the measure primarily gives regional trial courts the power to authorize law enforcers to conduct surveillance and record communications and information involving persons charged with or suspected of trafficking.

“My proposed measure also identifies responsibilities of both ISPs and tourism-oriented responsibilities. ISPs, for example, will be mandated to install to block and filter any access to any form of child pornography,” Gatchalian said.

“Tourism-oriented establishments, on the other hand, will be mandated to build their capacity to recognize and report human trafficking crimes,” he further said.

The measure aims to consolidate the government’s efforts against trafficking by reorganizing the InterAgency Council Against Trafficking to include agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

“Napapanahon na para paigtingin natin ang pagsugpo sa ganitong uri ng karahasan sa ating mga kabataan, lalo na’t pinalala ng pandemya ang suliraning ito (it’s high-time we strengthen our efforts to fight this kind of abuse against our youth, especially since this pandemic worsened our problem against online sexual exploitation),” the lawmaker said.

Duterte earlier convened the Cabinet and ordered the NTC to impose sanctions on ISPs for “failure to fulfill their duty” under the Republic Act No. 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Duterte wants lawmakers to prioritize the passage of bills that would exempt trafficking in persons from the Anti-Wiretapping Law, broaden membership of the interagency council on child pornography and impose obligations on ISPs and tourism establishments in the campaign eradicating child pornography in the country.