Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 25) —The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday admitted that it needs an additional budget for next year to implement cybersecurity measures, but it stressed that it does not have to be confidential funds.
DICT Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said they will leave it up to Congress if it will reinstate their confidential funds for 2024.
“Of course, we leave this up to the legislature,” he said before the Senate Committee on Science and Technology. “We will respect the decision of the legislature whether to grant us the confidential funds or not.”
“In fact, it is our position that we are relatively agnostic, kasi ang posisyon talaga ng DICT is kulang yung pondo (the position of DICT is we lack funds),” he added.
The DICT official made the statements after Senator Alan Peter Cayetano floated anew the idea of having confidential funds for the department to run after hackers.
“Kasi yung confidential fund, kung hindi ako nagkakamali, pwedeng reward dun,” said Cayetano in the hearing. “Pwede ka rin maglagay ng reward na kapag may nagbigay ng impormasyon tungkol dun o may nakahuli, pwede rin yun, pasok sa confidential ano yun.”
[Translation: I think the confidential funds can be used as a reward. You can grant rewards to anyone who shares information on hackers.]
DICT Secretary Ivan Uy earlier told CNN Philippines that the agency is seeking ₱600 million cybersecurity funding for 2024 to train cybersecurity experts, upgrade equipment, and renew expiring security system subscriptions.
But the department’s proposed cybersecurity budget for next year was cut to only ₱300 million, which is lower than the ₱600 million in 2023 and ₱1 billion in 2022.
The DICT was also among the government agencies that were denied by the House of Representatives to have confidential and intelligence funds next year.
More cybersecurity experts
The DICT also noted that it is in need of more personnel to work on cybersecurity programs.
“We still need yung competent, yung mga kababayan natin who are admittedly good, skilled, talented when it comes to ICT technology to join government in this fight in cybersecurity,” said DICT spokesperson Renato Paraiso.
[Translation: We still need competent people who are good, skilled, and talented when it comes to ICT technology to join the government in this fight in cybersecurity.]
Paraiso admitted that cybersecurity experts prefer working in private companies due to higher salaries.
“If you go outside the country, the premium for ICT and cybersecurity experts are much, much greater,” he pointed out. “So, there is lack of cybersecurity experts in government.”
The DICT earlier said the Philippines has only around 200 certified cybersecurity experts, which is far from those of other countries like Singapore which has about 3,000.
The department and Google Philippines launched in May a certificate program on cybersecurity for 500 government employees.
