DICT's confidential funds intended for cybercrime, scammers detection—Uy

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is seeking confidential funds to fight cybercrime and go after scammers.

Information and Secretary Ivan John Uy justified his department's move to request P300 million in confidential and intelligence funds for fiscal year 2024 during a Palace briefing on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

He explained that part of the mandate of DICT is to go after scammers, stressing that their "hands are tied" if they do not have the funds.

"As you very well know po, part of the mandate of DICT is to go after these scammers at nakatali po ang kamay namin (our hands are tied) if we do not have this kind of capability," Uy said.

He stressed that the scammers have various ways in order to avoid detection and to avoid capture or arrest, and the confidential fund is going to be "essential" to stop them.

"And we need all the resources possible and all the tools possible in order to go after them. So, the confidential fund would be essential in order to conduct intel and investigation in order to go after these criminals," Uy added.

To further defend DICT's confidential fund request, Uy said cyber criminals were "very well-funded, very well-organized, and very highly technical" so the government needs proper tools in order to go after them.

"And many of these tools and many of these methodologies require confidential funds to do it," he said.