Senators back budget hike for training of NBI officers
PHILIPPINE senators on Monday backed a budget increase for the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) training programs for officers after the Budget department allotted only P8 million of the P290 million the bureau had asked for.
“We’ll work on that (NBI budget increase),” Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara told Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla at a hearing on the budgets of the Department of Justice (DoJ) and its attached agencies. “You know you have a lot of supporters at the Senate.”
Mr. Angara noted that the Senate gave the NBI more than P500 million last year to train its officers.
NBI Director Medardo G. de Lemos said his agency needs at least P19 million to train 100 agents.
Last year, the NBI acted on 47,156 criminal cases and aims to solve about 57,000 in 2024, he said. He did not say how many cases last year were solved.
“We need to support the NBI because it serves a very important purpose of not only solving regular crimes but also trafficking,” Senator Rafael “Raffy” T. Tulfo told the hearing.
Senator Joseph Victor G. Ejercito said the NBI should be given P175 million in confidential and intelligence funds next year to boost anti-cybercrime cases.
“These are the agencies that we really have to put confidential and intelligence funds in, because this is a new enemy that we are facing right now,” he said.
Last month, the Department of Information and Communications Technology said the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) website had been attacked with ransomware, which it said put the personal information of its members at risk.
The Philippines topped the list of countries affected by cyberattacks in Southeast Asia this year, according to a Sept. 20 report by cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.
The country ranked 42nd out of 250 countries that were most affected by data breaches in the first quarter, with 48,747 leaked accounts, virtual private network service provider Surfshark said in a May report. This was down by 78.5% from 226,970 in the fourth quarter of last year.
Mr. Tulfo suggested transferring P50 million of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) confidential and intelligence funds to the NBI and other law enforcement agencies to go after rice smugglers.
He said the DA does not need these funds since the Bureau of Customs and other law enforcement agencies should be at the forefront of these anti-smuggling initiatives.
The Senate finance committee endorsed the DoJ’s P34-billion budget for 2024 to the plenary. — John Victor D. Ordoñez
