Phones, computers preferred tools of bank robbers – DOJ

MANILA, Philippines — In a country where 90 percent of crimes have cyber content and where robbers now use phones or computers to rob banks instead of guns, only P475,000 allocation for intelligence fund is being pushed for an office under the Department of Justice (DOJ) tasked with fighting the “new enemies” or cybercriminals.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla brought up the matter before the Senate finance subcommittee at yesterday’s hearing on the proposed 2024 budget for the DOJ and its attached agency the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

During the hearing presided over by Sen. Sonny Angara, Remulla said he was pushing for additional budget to strengthen the cybercrime efforts of the DOJ and NBI.

Despite the magnitude of its cybercrime tasks, the DOJ’s Office of Cybercrime has intelligence funds of only P475,000 under the national expenditure program, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito pointed out.

Saying cybercrime “is a daily problem that all Filipinos are encountering,” Ejercito asked Remulla what help can lawmakers offer to strengthen the cybercrime division of the NBI.

Remulla replied: “The NBI and DOJ cybercrime offices need help. In the DOJ, we are staffing the Cybercrime Division, (there are) only 20 people. If there are cybercrime prosecutors, specialized (on cybercrime), we will be needing at least 200 people for this.”

“What we really need is a lot of help in improving the capability of the NBI and DOJ cybercrime offices and cybercrime prosecutors. Whatever the Senate can give us will be of big help,” the DOJ chief said.

Angara said he wanted to make sure that the additional funds for the cybercrime divisions of both DOJ and NBI would not be a duplication of the funds for the same purpose being sought by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Remulla pointed out that DICT is tasked with handling the technical aspect of the fight against cybercrime while the DOJ and the NBI take care of the criminal investigation aspect.

Ejercito said the proposed P475,000 intelligence fund for the NBI Cybercrime Office is quite small, especially when compared to that of other civilian agencies not involved in fighting crimes or