Consolidated cybercrime bill to be filed this week

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

A consolidated version of a cybercrime bill will be filed this week, a state prosecutor has told INQUIRER.net.

"We're drafting an omnibus or consolidated bill. We're filing it this week," said Department of Justice State Prosecutor Geronimo Sy, in a telephone interview.

"This is everyone's responsibility," Sy said, as he pointed out that the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) is taking the lead in working for the bill in Congress.

CICT officials were unavailable for comment.

Last year, the DoJ created a task force to deal with cybersecurity issues in legislation and investigation. The group was created to pursue the e-government agenda, institutionalize a cybersecurity regime and implement laws.

Last year, Sy had said that the task force would work closely with the Council of Europe, a private organization, and local experts composed of IT practitioners and other stakeholders.

Among the top priorities of the group was to work for the passage of the cybercrime prevention act, which failed to pass in the previous Congress.

The task force was expected to work with the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police.

Also last year, the CICT, DoJ and the Council of Europe agreed to work together on the cybercrime bill.

So far, the country has convicted two hackers under the exisiting Republic Act No. 8792 or the Electronic Commerce Law.

DepEd awaits DoJ opinion on cyber education

The Department of Education is just waiting for the justice department to issue a legal opinion on how to proceed with its ambitious “open and distance learning,” or cyber education project.

The government suspended the project last year after opposition legislators denounced it as another anomalous Chinese deal.

But now the project is apparently back on track. “It’s just a question of time, technology, costs, phasing, scale and social marketing,” said Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus.

But the DepEd needs the opinion from the Department of Justice because it wants to comply with the rules, said Lapus.

“That is why we still can’t proceed with the project’s supply contract and loan agreement,” said Lapus, adding that to date, no contracts and commitments have been negotiated.

The P26.4-billion high-tech initiative aims to bridge the learning gap between urban and rural schools by using satellite technology to beam televised lectures to students and teachers in far-flung areas nationwide.

The project has now dropped the cyber education name and is now called simply open and distance learning.

The government initially considered undertaking the program with the Chinese firm Tsinghua Tongfang Nuctech Company (Nuctech) and Tsinghua University.

Late last year, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the presidential task force on education to evaluate and revise the project in a bid to put it back on track. Jerry E. Esplanada - Philippine Daily Inquirer

E-court project

E-court project makes debut in Marikina City court rooms

The city government of Marikina Wednesday started its electronic court (e-court) project to facilitate and enhance court transactions and services.

Mayor Marides Fernando said the program would reduce the delays in court proceedings and transactions, benefiting both the public and the city government ’s employees.

The project was initiated by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. through a P5 million allocation from the Priority Development Assistance Fund.

The allotment covers the computerization of eight regional courts and two municipal trial courts in the city.

It would also help set up a court database to allow better connectivity in the judiciary ’s administrative processes.

The project aims to connect local courts to the Supreme Court so both sides can effectively monitor decisions, memoranda and caseloads, Fernando added.

It would also pay for a closed-circuit video room that allows a child witness to testify outside the courtroom.

Lawyer Aquilino “Koko ” Pimentel III, a son of the senator who attended the project launch, said computerization would play a major role in reducing delays in court proceedings.

He expressed hopes that it would soon evolve into the paperless filing of pleadings and sharing of court information.

Apart from providing a database, the e-court project also calls for the installation of a computer-aided transcription machine that allows transcripts of stenographic notes to be printed and distributed right after a hearing.
By Kristine L. Alave - Philippine Daily Inquirer

DOJ nixes Internet ‘horseracing’

THE Department of Justice has thumbed down the application of a local subsidiary of a United Kingdom-based firm for a license to operate virtual horseracing in the internet.

In a four-page opinion, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez stressed that the Philippine Racing Commission is not authorized to sanction the operation of an online horseracing under PD 420, the law which created the commission.

Gonzalez issued the legal opinion upon the request of PRC chairman Jose Ferdinand Rojas who has received an application from Turfmaster Philippines, a private subsidiary corporation of Turfmaster UK, for the issuance of a permit to be able to legally operate an online horseracing in the country.

The firm sought the PRC’s issuance of a license to operate upon the advice of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.

Gonzalez said that PRC’s power covers only the holding of races involving actual horses.

“Indubitably, while the Philracom has jurisdiction and power over every aspect of the conduct of horse-racing’ including the issuance of licenses and/or permits in the conduct thereof, it appears clear that the said power/jurisdiction covers only the holding of races involving actual, live horses which, apparently, must also be registered with the Philracom as race horses before they can take part in horse races,” Gonzalez said.

“A reading of the provisions of the Philracom charter does not show any iota of evidence that is authorized, directly or otherwise, to sanction the operation of virtual horseracing in the internet,” he further said.

He added that the proposed online horseracing can be considered as “gambling in the internet” as the game intended would involve betting.

Such activity, according to Gonzalez, cannot be allowed without the consent of Congress. By: Hector Lawas - Journal online

'It was not a hacking incident'--PLDT

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net


MANILA, Philippines -- There was no hacking incident, a spokesperson of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) told INQUIRER.net, as it reacted to news of several government websites it hosted being redirected to a website of a Philippine theme park.

“It was not a hacking incident. We had problems with the software managing these websites,” said Ramon Isberto, spokesperson of PLDT, as he explained how the website of the Department of Justice (DoJ), and dormant websites of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (CIDG-PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Information Technology and E-commerce Council -- now a defunct body -- were found to be redirected to the official site of the Enchanted Kingdom theme park in Laguna.

Isberto said that the DoJ website was part of a cluster of websites whose management software had gone bad.

“The DoJ website was in the same cluster as the Enchanted Kingdom website. There were problems in the configuration [of the system hosting these websites]," the PLDT spokesperson added.

Isberto said the other government websites are also part of the same cluster of websites.

PLDT has also given the DoJ a written explanation of what happened.

Earlier, an Internet security expert from TrendLabs Philippines and a director of the Philippine Computer Emergency Response Team agreed that the recent redirection of at least three government websites to the Enchanted Kingdom website could be due to a “network setup problem.”

As of Friday, the ITECC website was restored, while the PNP website has been taken down.

Government websites affected by the redirection were www.itecc.gov.ph, which is an old website of the defunct ITECC; the www.cidg.pnp.gov.ph, a dormant address of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the www.doj.gov.ph, which was fixed immediately. All government websites were redirected to the official website of the Enchanted Kingdom, a popular theme park located in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

The Enchanted Kingdom website is hosted by Infocom Technologies, a local Internet service provider owned by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. The "itecc.gov.ph" domain is hosted by Infocom Technologies, a local Internet service provider owned by PLDT, a check on host of the domain name "itecc.gov.ph " revealed.

Infocom Technologies also appeared as host of the DoJ and the NBI websites.

DoJ says $330-M broadband deal legal

By Tetch Torres - INQUIRER.net

The Department of Justice (DoJ) has affirmed the legality of the $330-million broadband contract the Philippines signed with a Chinese company.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez told the Department of Transportation and Communication (DoTC) that the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) project could be considered an executive agreement, “provided that the loan agreement between the Philippine government and China Exim Bank is subsequently concluded."

He said executive agreements do not fall under Republic Act 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act requiring that "all procurement activities must be made through public bidding."

Lawmakers have questioned why the government settled for negotiating with a chosen company, ZTE Corp., rather than auctioning off the project as mandated by law.

They accuse the government of failing to consider the offers of other telecommunication firms amid reports that two other firms have offered to undertake the project at significantly lower costs -- Amsterdam Holdings with $242 million and Arescom USA with $135 million.

The DoTC is pushing the project as a means to cut government spending in telecommunications, which is estimated to be worth about P4 billion every year. The agency estimates that government can save around P3.6 billion in communications expense if the NBN pushes through.