NPC getting P100 million more to counter cyberattacks

MANILA, Philippines — Following data breaches in the past months involving several government agencies, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) will get an additional P100 million for next year to do a better job of protecting the people’s data and fighting cyberattacks, Sen. Grace Poe said.

Poe, chair of the Senate public services committee, said the additional budget will be spent on information communications technology equipment, ICT software and subscription, office rental, consultancy services, infrastructure for computer data management and other relevant equipment.

The NPC is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Poe sponsored the DICT budget on the Senate floor.

“The NPC ensures that policies made by the government and information sought from our people are kept secured. This is the reason we increased the budget of the commission,” Poe said.

“We want to strengthen the NPC and make it the public’s first resort for data privacy issues, similar to our version of 911 for emergencies,” she added.

Malacañang initially proposed a P337.5-million budget for NPC next year.

With the increased budget, Poe said the NPC is expected to fortify its public presence and lead in promoting data privacy awareness, aside from being the go-to agency when questions about data safety arise.

She added the need to continuously spread awareness of data privacy, especially in rural areas and among lower economic classes to make them less vulnerable to data privacy abuses.

Poe said data breaches in the past months involving several agencies that resulted in a staggering amount of leaked information should not happen again.

Poe also asked the NPC to be proactive in working with private entities to ensure that all the data collected from the people are kept secure, especially with the implementation of the SIM Registration Act, a law that she authored.

“As the privacy authority, the NPC must see to it that whatever data is collected must be protected,” Poe said.

COA flags DICT

The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the DICT over P2.69 billion in fund transfers (FT) to the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), which remained unliquidated without any details for more than 11 years.

In a management letter to DICT uploaded on the COA website on Nov. 6, state auditors noted that there were P4,030,960,791.91 unliquidated FTs of DICT to various government-owned and controlled corporations as of 2022.

Of that number, 67 percent pertains to FTs to PITC made by two of DICT’s defunct units: the National Computer Center and the Information and Communications Technology Office.

State auditors said that while the FTs to PITC were supposedly for the procurement of “goods and services,” their existence and validity remain questionable due to the lack of details and supporting documents.

The issue requires immediate action “due to the materiality of the amount and the period of time that these were parked in the PITC which aged five to more than 11 years,” COA noted.

“The existence of these outstanding balances implies the non-delivery and the non-materialization or operationalization of the projects,” it added.

The COA said the DICT management agreed to the audit recommendation to “account for all the transfers made to the PITC, its corresponding deliveries, unliquidated amounts and the projects involved and submit such to the COA for verification and monitoring.” – Elizabeth Marcelo