Gloria Arroyo, son urge fellow lawmakers to support bill vs economic espionage

Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her son Camarines Sur Representative Diosdado  “Dato” Arroyo want economic espionage to be considered a criminal act and penalized.

They are urging fellow lawmakers to support House Bill 1471 or the Economic Espionage and Protection of Proprietary Information Act, which mother and son are co-authors. It seeks to fine violators with an amount equivalent to the economic value of proprietary information illegally acquired.

“(Economic espionage) is also committed by anyone who wrongfully copies, duplicates, sketches, draws, photographs, downloads, uploads, alters, destroys, photocopies, replicates, transmits, delivers, sends, mails, communicates, or conveys proprietary economic information,” said the Camarines Sur lawmaker.

“At present, our laws do not give adequate protection to proprietary economic information,” he said.

The bill also seeks to penalize anyone who receives or buys illegally obtained information.

Violators will be made to forfeit in favor of the government the proceeds obtained from the proprietary information as well as the equipment used in acquiring the said documents.