MANILA, Philippines — Some teachers lost at least P26,000 to P121,000 each after their Landbank accounts were allegedly hacked, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) said on Monday.
TDC chair Benjo Basas told INQUIRER.net through a phone call that 16 teachers from Metro Manila, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Central Luzon, Negros, and Mindoro raised that their Landbank accounts lost money.
The amount lost per teacher ranges from P26,000 to P121,000, “or from their regular salary and holiday bonuses to lifetime savings.”
Basas has already informed the Department of Education (DepEd) regarding the matter and would officially submit the details of victimized teachers to resolve the issue.
“Nagtitiwala kami sa Landbank na secured ang bawat account ng mga guro at empleyado, kahit pa sa online banking system nila, pero bakit may mga ganitong pangyayari?” Basas lamented in a statement.
(We trust Landbank that each account of teachers and employees is secured, even their online banking system, but why is this happening?)
“Hindi po ito biro kasi malaking halaga na para sa aming mga guro ang isang buwang sahod o ang aming bonus, lalong masakit kung ang pinag-ipunan mong pera nang matagal ay mawawala nang ganun na lang,” he continued.
(This is not a joking matter because a month’s salary and bonus are huge for teachers. It is incredibly hurtful if the money saved for a long time will just be lost in an instant.)
William Montecalvo and Crisanto Cruz are two teachers who were victimized by the alleged scheme.
Montecalvo, a teacher in Quezon City, received a one-time password verification 13 times on November 12 last year, which prompted him to report it to the Landbank branch.
On the next day, he discovered that P121,000 had been stolen and transferred to a digital wallet account.
Meanwhile, Cruz, a teacher from Cavite, lost a total of P84,815 on December 30. P50,025 and P34,379 were transferred to an electronic wallet account and another bank account, respectively.
Basas stressed that Landbank should be held accountable.
“May pananagutan ang Landbank sa mga insidenteng ito at nais naming tulungan kami ng DepEd upang mabawi ang perang nawala mula sa aming kasamahan,” he said.
(Landbank has accountability in this incident and we would like DepEd to help us restore the lost money of our members.)
The TDC urged their colleagues in the private sector to report the same incident to authorities or coordinate with them for necessary actions.
Landbank, meanwhile, denied any hacking incident in its systems and said that the teachers’ accounts were hacked through phishing.
“The Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) clarifies that its systems were not hacked and remain secure, following reports that alleged unauthorized transactions were experienced by two teachers who maintain payroll accounts with LANDBANK,” it said in a separate statement.
“According to the initial investigation by LANDBANK, the devices of the teachers were hacked via phishing which compromised their personal information,” it added.
Landbank also assured that it has reached out to the two affected teachers and is working to resolve the “isolated cases” immediately.
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