Marcos: We will improve PNP’s capability vs cybercrime

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to improve the capability of the Philippine National Police (PNP) when it comes to fighting cybercrime.

According to the Palace on Wednesday, the government still needs to enhance its ability to fight against cybercrimes.

READ: Bongbong Marcos: ‘We have to build our cybercrime unit from scratch’

“We will improve our capability. Nagulat nga ako they don’t have a server. Kaya’t mahirapan talagang proteksyonan kung hiwa-hiwalay. Although there’s also an element of security ‘yung standalone,” said Marcos in a Tuesday meeting with PNP officials.

(I was surprised that they do not have a server. So, it is hard to protect ourselves if we are fragmented. Although there’s also an element of security for standalone.)

READ: Marcos: PNP needs plan to improve communications capability

During the meeting, Marcos also lauded the decreasing crime rates.

“Everything has gone down. Theft has gone down, rape has gone down, pero mataas pa rin, mataas pa rin ‘yung rape (but the number of rape incidents is still high). Other index crimes and all of them are more or less — at least we can say that we are doing better than we were before,” said Marcos.

Citing a report from the PNP, the Palace said that crime decreased by 8.264 percent, from 204,557 from July 2022 to May 2023 to 187,652 from July 2023 to May 31, 2024.