Cyber crime lab to rise

CEBU, Philippines - A well-equipped Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Crime Laboratory building that specializes in cyber crime investigation will soon be built to serve not just Cebu Province but the entire Central Visayas.

The provincial government, in partnership with the Philippine National Police, set aside a budget of P1.45 million in order to realize the said laboratory. Also, the United States Homeland Security gave P5 million worth of necessary equipment to the CIDG.

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the building will be finished in a month in the Cebu Provincial Police Office headquarters in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

“We embrace our responsibility passionately to ensure that peace and order will be maintained in Cebu Province…we will serve the Cebuanos even if it means we take our last grasp of breath or our last ounce of sweat,” Garcia said during the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday at the CPPO quadrangle.

Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr., chief of the CIDG, said that cyber crimes can be done personally and for commercial purposes through the Internet or cellular phones and computer experts are needed to retrieve data for evidentiary purposes.

“Lots of crimes committed through cellphones and Internet and crime lab plays an important role in the investigation,” Pagdilao said.

He added that the cyber lab will be the first in the region and they chose Cebu since it is the center and hub of commercial activities in the region.

Last August, it was Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, chairwoman of the Children and Women’s Commission, who sent a letter to the governor after a talk with Sr. Supt. Gilbert Sosa, chief of the Anti-Trans National Cyber Crime Division of Camp Crame, during the Cyber Crime Investigation Seminar at Camp Sergio Osmeña Sr. in Cebu City.

Magpale said that cybersex victimizes the most vulnerable sectors of the society —women and children.

With the establishment of the cyber lab, there is no need for the PNP to go to Manila for forensic examination since the same can now be done in Cebu.  (FREEMAN)