IT experts leaving RP for greener pastures

By: Alfred P. Dalizon - Journal online
GOVERNMENT computer experts have left their offices for greener pastures abroad or multi-national companies that give them six-digit salaries a month.

“That’s the sad fact, once na-train na ang mga government employees natin, they say goodbye dahil maliit ang suweldo,” said Senior Supt. Gilbert C. Sosa, head of the Anti-Transnational Crime Division of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

He cited as an example a dozen government employees who were trained by Microsoft in 2005.

“Sad to say, umalis na sila sa gobyerno to get higher-paying jobs that gives them a minimum of P120,000 a month. Kami na lang mga pulis ang natira,” Sosa said.

Sosa is one of the six EnCase Certified Examiners who are PNP officers and men themselves. The others are Chief Insp. Ariel T. Ilumin, Inspectors Enrique C. Burdeos, Levy V. Lozada and Jorge M. Meneses and non-uniformed personnel Nerissa B. Salcedo. They got their diploma from the international Guidance Software after demonstrating proficiency in computer forensics and the EnCase methodology of examining digital evidence. They completed the EnCE testing program in March 2007.

He told the Journal Group that there is little evidence to prove that the Chinese government was ‘spying’ on the country through its websites. He said the so-called ‘Ghostnet’ did not identify the Philippines as among the diplomatic and government offices in Southeast Asia where research had detected an intelligence gathering operation involving 1,295 compromised computers.

“Purely speculative na kasama ang Pilipinas,” he said.

Sosa said Republic Act 8792 or the Electronics Commerce Act of 2000 failed to address cyber crimes enumerated in the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crimes of 2001.