‘Digital highway robbery’ to be curbed under proposed AFASA – Alan Cayetano

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano assured consumers that the passage of the proposed Anti-financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA) would help put a stop to the persistent problem of digital highway robbery.

Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, and who raised the alarm on digital highway robbery, emphasized the vulnerability of accessing data on the Internet and AFASA’S role to prevent this once it is enacted into law.

“Ang digital highway ang ating problema. Maraming may akala na noong pinasa natin ang SIM card registration, mababawasan na nang husto ang mga nanloloko (the digital highway is our problem. Many thought that once we passed the SIM registration law, the number of scammers would be reduced),” Cayetano noted.

“Pero (But) as you have seen, the digital way of extorting money, scams, and schemes is only one way,” the senator noted.

Drawing inspiration from Singapore's stringent anti-scam protocols, Cayetano pushed for a more enhanced anti-scam mechanisms in the proposed AFASA bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Villar.

AFASA primarily aims to combat the surge in crimes involving banks, e-wallets, and other financial institutions.

Under the bill, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will be given authority to examine financial accounts involved in prohibited acts, heralding a substantial change that will ease the Bank Secrecy Law.

The bill also empowers responsible institutions to temporarily hold funds subject to suspicious transactions.

Citing Singapore’s Anti-scam Command (ASCOM), which became operational on March 22, 2022, Cayetano commended how the said agency improved collaboration among different units dedicated to combating scams within the Singapore Police Force (SPF).