Cyber Cops on Patrol

Newly installed Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Nicolas Torre III wants to reduce to three minutes, not just five minutes, the time for policemen to respond to any emergency calls for their help.

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This quick response time requires policemen, especially on car patrols, to arrive at the crime scene or to respond to any calls for police assistance.

But a special unit of the PNP equipped with modern information communications technology gadgets and equipment can deliver much faster response time. This is the mission order of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG).

Created in 2003, the PNP-ACG, headed now by Brig. Gen. Bernard Yang, deploys their "cyber patrol" nationwide using the most sophisticated, advanced technology software for this mission.

Manned by "cyber cops," the PNP-ACG can even take real-time action against online scams monitored or reported to them while conducting 24/7 online monitoring.

To further bolster its effectiveness in fighting cybercrimes, the 800-man strong PNP-ACG have joined forces with ScamWatch Pilipinas and Gogolook PH.

Dubbed as Scam-Vault PH, the online app was launched today at the Kapitan sa Manila Bay news forum by the respective heads of the PNP-ACG, ScamWatch Pilipinas and Gogolook PH collaborating on this dedicated page in Facebook (FB).

According to Jocel de Guzman, creator of ScamWatch Pilipinas, ScamVault PH is a group page where group members and volunteers of their advocacy group can share harmful scam FB contents.

"The big idea is to empower FB users to report harmful content to the ScamVault PH Group Page," de Guzman explained.

This is the "whole-of-society" approach in stamping out text scams, spoofing, phishing, vishing and all other forms of cybercrimes, De Guzman pointed out.

Regarded as the most popular social media platform, it is estimated that around 87 million Filipinos out of the country's 110 million population are FB users, Art Samaniego, co-convenor of the ScamWatch Pilipinas disclosed.