President Marcos said the government is looking for ways to tap civilian cybersecurity experts to make the different government agencies’ cybersecurity capabilities more robust amid incidents of wiretapping.

Marcos said this after the Chinese Embassy claimed the Chinese government and the Philippine government entered into an agreement regarding the South China Sea and released a supposed transcript of the said phone conversation.

In an interview in Makati City on Saturday evening, May 18, the President said the government is already talking to “many experts” to address the issue and that they are thinking of ways to bring them in the government.

“Some of the best people in cybersecurity are actually Filipino but they are civilians so we have to bring some of them,” he said.

“I don’t know if we can find an arrangement for them to work for the military, to work for government agencies. Maybe as a free agent? We’ll see,” he added.

Meanwhile, Marcos said the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) are working with security services to improve the country’s cyber defenses.

“There have been so many departments and agencies that have been victimized. I think we’re all very aware of the risk of cybersecurity for all kinds of reasons. We’re very conscious of that,” he said.

“The DICT, for example, together with the DOST, are working hard together with our security services to make more robust our cybersecurity,” he added.

One of the wiretapping incidents that the government is looking into, according to President Marcos, is the supposed conversation between the Chinese Government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) West Command on the disputed portions of the South China Sea.

According to the President, the Philippines has no copy of the supposed recorded conversation and unless China releases it, it would be difficult to accept nor believe that such an agreement exists.