Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
THE Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), the country's only development bank, signed a memorandum of agreement with my agency, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center of the Philippines (CICC), on Feb. 4, 2022. With all the brouhaha, it felt like a culminating event for me, as the initiator from our side, and a validation of our capability to be trusted by this esteemed financial institution. To everyone in my agency and the DBP, it is only the start of a multifaceted engagement to materialize a cybersecure DBP as an institution giving a cybersafe banking experience to its stakeholders.
It was a majority of the board and good governance committee initiative led by board director Ma. Lourdes Arcenas. This partnership was planted way back in August 2021 and the process was tedious. I've been in government for more than 30 years (showing my age 55) and seen a lot of agencies try onboarding stakeholders and it is usually a "hit or miss forever situation." Each agency will always have their own priorities and as they differ from each other, the proposition seems to be juxtaposed in most situations. But this partnership seems to be providential if not serendipitous. It is providential as the financial sector in the whole world has presented itself as a honey pot for cybercriminals due to the sector's level of digitalization (so it is not whether this partnership was going to materialize or not, but when and who will the DBP partner up with). The Philippines, in fact, is bankable to bad actors in the cyberworld (being a country with the majority transacting online). Thus, heavy handholding with the DBP (not just some ribbon-cutting and photo ops) is "motu proprio." I say providential (opportune) because among government-owned and -controlled corporations, the DBP's fiduciary responsibility is unparalleled and crucial to the economic development of the Philippines and therefore is a mammoth challenge which we feel honored to be helping with.
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