File charges against online lending companies (OLCs) engaged in “unfair debt collection practices and cyber harassment,” the Department of Justice’s Office of Cybercrime (DOJ-OOC) advised the public.
DOJ-OOC Officer-in-Charge Charito A. Zamora said the call was made “in response to the increasing number of reports received and endorsed to it” against OLCs.
Citing reports, Zamora said there are certain OLCs which have been accessing debtors’ phone book or contacts for the purpose of sending them messages in the event of untimely and/or non-payment; posting debtors’ personal and sensitive information online for the purpose of shaming them; threatening debtors with death and physical injuries; and the use of profane language through text message to debtors and debtors’ references to shame them.
Zamora said victims of OLCs abuse may also file their complaints before the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG), the National Bureau of Investigation-Cybercrime Division (NBI-CCD), the National Privacy Commission (NPC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
She pointed out that her office’s advisory was issued “in line with the policy of the State to protect and safeguard the integrity of computer, computer and communication systems, networks, and databases, and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and data stored therein, from all forms of misuse, abuse, and illegal access, and to ensure that personal information in information and communication systems in the government and in the private sector are secured and protected.”
She warned OLCs that Republic Act No. 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, “criminalizes illegal access which is defined as the access to the whole or any part of a computer system without right.”
“The same law reaffirms the crime of libel under Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) committed through a computer system or any other similar means, which may be devised in the future,” she added.
Also, under the RPC and depending on the allegations of the complainant, “OLCs engaged in unfair debt collection practices may be held liable for any of the crimes of grave or light threats, grave or light coercions, or unjust vexation in relation to Section 613 of R.A. No. 10175,” she stressed.
Citing an example, Zamora said:
“For instance, a debtor may be threatened with death, physical injuries and/or the public disclosure and sharing of his/her personal information online with the caption ‘scammer’. These are clearly constitutive of the crime of grave threats that is defined as the act of any person who shall threaten another with the infliction upon the person, honor or property of the latter or of his family of any wrong amounting to a crime.”
She pointed out that RA 10173, the Data Privacy Act of 2012, “safeguards personal and sensitive personal information against abuse on the part of information processors.”
She said this law “criminalizes certain acts, such as Unauthorized Processing of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information, Processing of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information for Unauthorized Purposes and Malicious Disclosure.”
She also reminded that the Securities and Exchange Commission-issued Memorandum Circular No. 18, Series of 2019, “prohibits unfair collection practices.”
Among the unfair debt practices, she said, are use of obscenities, insults or profane language; publication of the names and other personal information of the borrowers; and the use of any false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a borrower.