Saying illegal Internet activities in the country were already alarming, Buhay Reps. Irwin Tieng and Mariano Michael Velarde have defined and penalized phishing in their proposed Anti-Phishing Bill of 2012.
House Bill 6199 defines phishing as an act of securing personal information such as usernames, passwords, bank account numbers and credit card details and using it in fraud or identity theft and misrepresentation.
The bill imposes a 12-year imprisonment and a fine of P200,000 on violators and their accomplices.
Velarde said two cybercrime bills, Senate Bill 2796 or “An Act Defining Cybercrime, Providing for Prevention, Investigation and Imposition of Penalties Therefor and For Other Purposes” and HB 5808 or “An Act Preventing Cybercrime, Providing for the Prevention, Suppression and the Imposition of Penalties Therefor and for Other Purposes,” which was passed on third reading, are pending approval.
Velarde cited the declared policy of the State which recognizes the increasingly vital role of information and communications technology (ICT) as an enabler of key industries, such as banking, broadcasting, business process outsourcing, electronic commerce and telecommunications and a driving force for the nation’s overall social and economic development.
Tieng said the State also recognizes the importance of providing an environment conducive to the development, acceleration and application of ICT to attain free, easy and intelligible access to exchange and/or deliver information, as well as the need to protect and safeguard the integrity of computer and communications systems, networks and database, and the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and data stored, from all forms of misuse, abuse and illegal access by making such conduct punishable under the law.
“It is in this light that the State shall adopt sufficient powers to effectively prevent and combat such offenses by facilitating their detection, investigation and prosecution at both the domestic and international levels, and by providing arrangements for fast and reliable international cooperation,” Tieng said.
The bill provides for government assistance to other countries under Presidential Decree 1069 otherwise known as the “Philippine Extradition Law” for purposes of detection, investigation and prosecution of offenses under the proposed act.