With a budget increase of over 31 times than what it received last year, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center is being counted on by Congress to take strong and swift action that will curb, if not end, the rising cases of fraudulent bank transactions of phishers and digital hackers.
Anakalusugan Partylist Rep. MIchael Defensor aired these expectations as he urged the CICC to identify phishers that have succeeded in defrauding innocent bank depositors of hard earned money, including several teachers who lost P26,000 to P121,000 each recently.
Defensor said the phishers succeeded in their ploy to make the victims reveal confidential details of their bank accounts and then illegally accessed and took the money out of their payroll accounts with the state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines.
“We gave the CICC a total P365.4 million in new appropriations this year, including P63.5 million for capital outlay, precisely so that it can start operating effectively,” Defensor said.
Congress gave CICC only P11.7 million in 2021, which is 31 times less than what the agency will receive this year.
"We expect the CICC to expedite the identification, capture and prosecution of phishers, hackers and other cybercriminals,” Defensor stated.
The lawmaker added: “Phishing and hacking are law enforcement problems that can only be curbed once the culprits are apprehended and put behind bars.”
The CICC is an inter-agency body created by the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 to protect the integrity of the country’s computer and communications network and crack down on all forms of misuse, abuse and illegal access.