MANILA — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has presented to the Cabinet a cybersecurity plan that, if approved by the President, will become the country’s National Plan on Cybersecurity.

“We already prepared our cybersecurity plan, which we presented to the Cabinet recently. It’s awaiting final approval,” DICT Sec. John Ivan Uy said during the 2023 Post-SONA discussions at a hotel in Pasay City Wednesday.

“Once this is okayed by the President, it will become our approach — the National Plan on Cybersecurity,” he explained to ABS-CBN News shortly after the forum.

An official copy of the plan has yet to be released but based on the draft made public in May 2023 for comment, it will involve enacting a law on cybersecurity, protecting critical infrastructure, and proactively protecting the government and its people in cyberspace, as well as better coordination and capacitation of the cybersecurity workforce.

“With the Cybersecurity Plan, it actually identifies the areas where the critical infrastructures that need to be secured and what particular aggrupation of agencies that will be addressing that on the civilian side and on the military side. And how all of us will work together to coordinate all efforts in defending our country,” he said.

“As most of us have seen, today in warfare, first attack is not done with a bullet or a missile. It’s done in cyberspace. And because of that, I think it’s really a big concern worldwide. Cybersecurity should have a very, very dominant role because when you launch a missile and you hit the target, the target is just 1 building or a few buildings. That’s the damage that you cause. When you launch a cyberattack and you shut down entire financial system of country, the damage of the impact is many, many times bigger,” he explained.

Newly-installed Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner, in the forum, acknowledged the need to address cybersecurity warfare, among other external threats to the country.

Uy noted that in the past, the Philippine approach to cybersecurity has been “segmented” with each agency doing its “own thing.”

“We all need to work together and actually, I think this is the first time that there’s a serious approach from all the government agencies and the private sector to address this growing threat,” he added.

The DICT chief said however, the threat goes beyond cybersecurity but also includes cybercrimes.

He attributed this to the shift to online platforms during the pandemic.

“Because of the pandemic, there was a sudden increase in online activity for commercial transactions, for entertainment, for social media, for communications, financial transactions, banking transactions. Because of that rapid shift to online, the criminals suddenly found a very fertile area to operate and that’s what they’re exploiting today,” he said.

Among the recent cybercrimes, was the GCash phishing incident in May this year where users of the mobile wallet app reported losing an estimated P37 million to suspicious transactions.

Uy said they have talked to stakeholders to prevent a similar incident from happening.

“Actually, we’ve worked with not just GCash but we’ve addressed that with all e-wallet providers as well as online digital banks. Because in order to be able to successfully deal with these kinds of threats, it cannot be in isolation. It cannot be that just because one player has been affected, that it does not transcend or cross boundaries or cross platforms and affect the others. Because of this today, every time we see potential a potential threat against one, we call everybody together and look at ways of preventing that from happening for everybody else,” he said.

Uy also touted the President’s signing of the SIM card registration law last year, which he said was targetted as cyberscammers.

Registration ended midnight of July 26 with 105 million registered SIM cards.

Uy estimated that this figure constitutes 99 percent of revenue-generating SIMs or those that are either postpaid or are still being loaded.

The DICT secretary also hailed the country’s “greatly enhanced and improved” cybercrime detection and investigation capability through the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Council (CICC).

“The CICC is actually the primary agency in doing all the coordination among the different law enforcement agencies dealing with cybercrime. They have actually taken a lot of effort in putting together a coordination mechanism so that we become effective in going after these criminal syndicates. We’ve busted many criminal syndicates, whether these are syndicates that are operating scams or online gambling sites, or even cyberterrorists — they’ve also been able to identify and actually deport. We’re working with the Bureau of Immigration, the Philippine National Police in arresting and deporting cyberterrorists,” he said.

“In fact, they have teams now sharing a single room. You know one room where all the law enforcement agencies, the banks, the e-wallet providers, the telcos — all are working so that once an incident is reported, we are able to act on it with haste and not give the cybercriminals or cyberthreat actors the opportunity to victimize the other portion of our community,” he added.

DICT also vowed to swiftly roll out e-Government projects following the President’s directive for a “full digitalization of the country’s bureaucracy.

Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) Director General Ernesto Perez, in the same forum, cited the President’s emphasis on streamlining and digitalizing government processes as a key component in attracting investors to the country.

The President, in his second State of the Nation Address Monday, boasted a total investment value of P3.9 trillion or USD71 billion that his foreign trips generated, which he claimed could generate 175,000 jobs.

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