EDITORIAL: Cyber Crackdown

THE headline number—5,099 cyber‐crime arrests from January to mid-June 2025—is both reassuring and alarming.

It shows that the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) is finally finding its footing online, yet it also confirms that digital fraud is no longer the petty hustle of a few rogue operators: it has become organized, professional and nationwide.

One uncomfortable truth in Brig. Gen. Bernard Yang’s briefing is that many of the suspects are displaced workers from the now-banned Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).

When the industry was shuttered last year, thousands of employees—Filipino and foreign—were cut loose with technical skills, underworld contacts and no legitimate options. They simply migrated from gambling floors to phishing rooms.

The lesson is clear: banning a problem industry without an equally aggressive reintegration plan only pushes crime into the shadows.

The Department of Labor and local governments must fast-track retraining and placement programs for former POGO workers before the next wave of cyber syndicates recruits them.

The second red flag is the seizure of suitcases stuffed with 100 or more “legally” registered SIM cards. The 2022 SIM Registration Act was supposed to end anonymous texting; instead, fake IDs and rent-a-face schemes have turned registration into a rubber stamp.

The NTC, DICT and Congress must move quickly on the proposal—already endorsed by the PNP-ACG and Scam Watch Pilipinas—to cap ownership at ten SIM cards per person and to require in-person verification for bulk corporate accounts.

PNP wants social-media giants to maintain brick-and-mortar offices here. That is the minimum. If Meta, ByteDance or X can book billions in local ad sales, they can certainly station compliance teams who can respond to takedown orders within hours, not days.

Likewise, telcos must police their networks: no more arguing that they are “mere conduits” while scammers burn through unlimited SMS bundles.

The AI-generated video of President Marcos endorsing a bogus investment is a preview of 2026. If the image of the sitting Chief Executive can be hijacked this easily, imagine what can be done to teachers, soldiers or election officials next year.

Congress should update the Cybercrime Prevention Act to criminalize the malicious use of Deepfakes and to fund a national forensic lab capable of authenticating suspect media in real time.

Law enforcement can chase syndicates and regulators can tighten rules, but Filipinos must stop giving away personal data as casually as they forward memes. Never share one-time passwords, never click a payment link sent by an unknown “courier,” and never believe an unsolicited caller who claims to be from the PSA while your e-wallet balance vanishes mid-conversation.

Schools and barangay halls should treat digital hygiene the same way they treat fire drills: practice it, repeat it, live it.

Five thousand arrests are progress, but cybercrime is a hydra—cut off one head, two sprout in its place. To finish the job we must (1) rehabilitate POGO refugees, (2) seal the SIM loophole, (3) hold platforms and telcos liable, (4) outlaw malicious deepfakes, and (5) arm every Filipino with basic cyber-self-defense. Anything less, and next year’s headline will read: “10,000 Nabbed—And Counting.”