Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is now seeking a in-depth Senate probe into the online bank hacking incident and the spate of spam text messages that occurred late last year.

Gatchalian, in filing Senate Resolution No. 961, said it is imperative that the Senate investigates the proliferation of unauthorized bank transactions and the SMS phishing offering non-existent jobs to unsuspecting mobile users.

“There is a need for a more comprehensive investigation on these issues to enable us to come up with remedial legislation that will address the public’s concern over breach of their personal data and ascertain if banks, business establishments, and concerned regulatory agencies are implementing adequate security measures and controls as well as enforcing consumer redress mechanisms,” Gatchalian said.

The re-electionist senator said the appropriate committee to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, with the end goal of enhancing the enforcement of the Data Privacy Act, Cybercrime Prevention Act, New Central Bank Act, and other related laws.

“We have to ensure that the concerned agencies have ample powers to secure the protection of personal information and monies of the general public and if possible, prevent similar incidents from happening,” Gatchalian said.

“There should be a law against local and global organized syndicates scamming ordinary Filipinos, especially overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the unemployed, and vulnerable,” he stressed.

Prior to the incident involving the hacking of bank accounts of BDO depositors, a number of complainants claimed they have been victimized by scammers who sent text messages offering online jobs, gifts, prizes, discounted items or pretending to represent reputable companies.

They would later on lure their would-be victims into revealing their personal information or one-time password (OTP).

The victims who took on to social media claimed they neither clicked any suspicious link nor unsuspectingly gave their OTP. Yet cyber criminals were able to access their accounts and transferred the money to a Union Bank account of a certain “Mark Nagoyo.”

“These incidents of bank hacking clearly show that the security breaches were not due to the account holder’s negligence,” Gatchalian said.

While the concerned banks have already started reimbursing the claims of the innocent clients, the lawmaker said the surge in the cases of fraudulent electronic payments and online banking transactions raises doubts on whether bank consumers are amply protected against personal information or identity theft, cybersecurity attacks, and other similar cybercrimes.

“Dapat matigil na o maiwasan na maulit ang mga ganitong pangyayari. Mababawasan ang kumpiyansa ng publiko sa mga bangko kung magpapatuloy ito (We should stop or prevent a repeat of this kind of incident. The public’s trust in the country’s banking sector will erode if this continues),” he said.

“Nakakabahala rin na nae-expose ang mga mobile phone numbers sa mga organisadong global syndicates na may pakana diumano ng mga (It is also worrisome that mobile phone numbers are exposed to these organized global syndicates that are behind these so-called) spam text messages,” he said.