Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan Uy on Wednesday defended the agency's proposed P300 million confidential funds (CF) in its 2024 budget.
In a press briefing at the Malacañang, Uy said that the proposed CF would be utilized to combat scammers.
"As you very well know, part ng mandate ng DICT is to fight scammers. Nakatali ang kamay namin if we don't have these kinds of capability," he said.
According to Uy, scammers have a wide range of resources to avoid arrest, and they are very well-funded and highly technical.
"We need all the resources possible and all the tools possible in order to go after them. The confidential fund is essential in order to conduct intel and investigation," he said.
The DICT Secretary stressed that the government needs to have the same capabilities as the scammers.
"Nakatali ang ating kamay kapag wala tayong proper tools in order to go after them, and many of these methodology requires confidential funds to do it," he said.
Uy said DICT had confidential funds in the past, but it did not propose one last Duterte administration.
When asked why does the mandatory SIM Card Registration did not thwart the scammers, Uy said that scammers have other means to deceive people.
"The scammers move platform, since naputulan sila ng isang tool which is SIM Card. They move to over the top providers: Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Viber, pati email na hindi kailangan ng SIM Card. Doon sila dumaan upang dumaan ang kanilang panloloko," he explained.
