Former Philippine National Police chief Guillermo Eleazar.
MANILA, Philippines — Acknowledging that cybercrime is the ‘crime of the future,’ former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and senatorial candidate Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar vowed to institutionalize Project E-ACCESS in the government to address the increasing number of cybercrime incidents in the country.
Project E-ACCESS or Enhanced Anti-Cybercrime Campaign, Education, Safety and Security was launched by Eleazar in the PNP when he became its chief in 2021.
It is a web verification platform utilized by the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) where concerned citizens can check or report online accounts such as mobile numbers, emails, websites or social media accounts that are subject of a verified complaint or with pending criminal cases for cybercrime violations.
“Nitong nagdaang mga taon, hindi lang virus ang kumalat kundi pati fake news, hacking, at online scams. Nakita natin na ang cybercrime ang magiging krimen in the future kaya gusto kong palakasin ang kapabilidad ng ating bansa para labanan ito,” Eleazar said.
Eleazar, who had also served as the PNP-ACG director, said the pandemic magnified the occurrence of cybercrimes since the public are forced to do almost everything virtually. Reports of fake food and other delivery orders as well as money-making schemes have frequently grabbed headlines as more people easily fall prey to cybercriminals.
“During this pandemic, we have seen na itong cybercrime ay talagang dumami. Kaya naman napakaganda na isulong ang pagpapalakas ng capability ng ating law enforcement agencies partikular na ang PNP-ACG para sugpuin ang online scammers at iba pang cyrbercriminals,” he said.
“Nais natin na magamit din ng gobyerno itong E-ACCESS para mas madaling mamonitor ng mga ahensya ang mga cybercriminals at may ‘go to’ place ang ating mga kababayan na namomroblema sa mga cybercrimes,” he added.
Right now, the ACG has established a decent data bank in the Project E-ACCESS which contains a list of cellphone numbers, emails, and social media accounts of cybercriminals that were used in various scams and other illegal activities in the past.
Aside from adopting Project E-ACCESS, Eleazar also promised to raise the penalties for individuals who will be proven guilty of committing cybercrimes.
“Dahil nga parami na ng parami ang nai-involve sa ganitong mga gawain, kailangan talagang patawan ng mas mabigat na parusa ang online scammers at iba pang cybercriminals. Isa ito sa mga ilalaban natin pagdating natin sa Senado,” he stated.
“I subscribe to the idea that the best crime prevention is the certainty that those who will commit illegal activities will be caught by the law enforcers and punished to the full extent of the law. Kapag alam ng mga kriminal na tiyak ay mahuhuli sila kapag gumawa ng krimen, magdadalawang-isip sila ngayon na gumawa nang masama. Ito ang gusto natin mangyari kaya dapat palakasin ang operational at investigative capabilities ng ating law enforcement agencies lalo na ang PNP,” he added.