Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday reiterated his call for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to establish the country’s own Anti-Scam Center to address the growing problem of scams.
This proposal came during the Senate plenary deliberations on the DICT’s proposed 2025 budget on November 20, 2024 where Cayetano emphasized the urgency of creating such a center.
“Go to Singapore and Hong Kong because they have anti-scam centers na in one office, nandoon na y’ung pulis, y’ung mga IT personnel, at y’ung mga bangko,” he said in a manifestation.
Cayetano stressed that the proactive measures of these countries in addressing various types of scams — many of which have been discussed in Senate hearings — highlight the need for the Philippines to adopt a similar approach as scams continue to evolve.
“Parang sanay pa rin tayo sa pa-isa-isang scam. Pero lahat ng scam na nabanggit dito at sa ibang Senate hearings, nandoon na [sa kanila],” he said.
The senator emphasized that an efficient anti-scam system would not only reduce the number of scams but also help recover significant financial losses, as demonstrated by Singapore’s success.
“In the last two years, ang na-recover ng mga Singaporean government for those na na-scam is more than 600 million Singaporean dollars,” he said.
Singapore’s Anti-Scam Command (ASCom), which became operational in March 2022, centralizes efforts in scam investigation, incident response, enforcement, and analysis, with all functions coordinated under one entity.
Hoping to replicate these systematic efforts in the Philippines, Cayetano urged DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy to take steps toward establishing a similar center.
“May I bring that up to you na sana next budget, next year, mayroon na tayong sariling anti-scam center na baka pwede ninyong pangunahan,” he said.
