President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. expressed his support on Wednesday to the recommendation of the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) Digital Infrastructure Group to certify as “priority legislation” the three bills pending in the Senate in line with the Philippine Digital Transformation Framework to strengthen cybersecurity efforts.
The President informed PSAC in a Palace meeting that he will look into those bills and see how and what can be done to move them in Congress for their eventual passage.
“It looks like there is a great need for structural requirements in legislation. Let me work on the Cybersecurity Act, Anti-Mule and the Online Site Blocking Act. We will talk with the leadership of the Legislature and see how we can move along quickly,” the President told the PSAC officials.
The three bills being pushed by PSAC and are pending at the Senate include the Cybersecurity Act ( Senate Bill No. 1365), Anti-Mule Act (Senate Bill No. 2039) and the Online Site Blocking Act (Senate Bill Nos. 2150 and No. 2385).
According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the passage of SB No. 1365, or the Cybersecurity Act, will promote and increase the country’s cybersecurity resilience and improve its posture.
It also includes provisions for identifying and safeguarding critical information infrastructures (CIIs), as well as potential penalties for underperforming entities in observing the standards and practices to protect digital assets.
Given the recent cyber threats in various agencies, the passage of the Cybersecurity Act could further strengthen the administration’s goal of securing and protecting public digital assets.
Tech company Cisco Systems Inc. said that 85 percent of companies in the Philippines recognize that cybersecurity attack may disrupt their operations in the next 24 months.
The DICT said that the Philippines ranked fourth worldwide in the number of cyberattacks, with 3,000 cyber incidents logged from 2020 to 2022, about half targeting the government.
On the other hand, the proposed passage of the Anti-Mule Act, which will prohibit money mules ad other fraudulent acts involving bank accounts, e-wallets, and other financial accounts, is in line with government’s efforts to ensure responsive and safe online services for the public as it will strengthen the drive against other forms of cybercrime.
Once passed, the law will criminalize registering or opening an account using fake identity, selling or transferring an account to unauthorized persons, purchasing or using an account without being the owner, as well as recruitment of people to open accounts for fraudulent purposes.
The measure will also impose stiffer penalties and will define jurisdiction and enforcement of courts and law enforcement agencies.
In addition, the passage of the Online Site Blocking Bill, which institutionalizes online site blocking of websites showing pirated content, will protect the creative industry and consumers from the inherent dangers of online content piracy.
According to its proponents, allowing pirate websites to proliferate increases the threat to Filipinos and deprive legitimate content business of revenue. The legislation calls for higher penalties and empowers the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) against online content piracy.
“It allows our creative economy so that artists are able to create content and… that it won’t be stolen. Because right now, contents are being pilfered over the internet and no more the DVDs. Unfortunately, there are laws that we really need to give a lot of teeth to our Executive branch to implement properly,” the PSAC said. PND
