By Helen Castaño | 04:45 PM October 23, 2023
Rep. Alexie Besas-Tutor of Bohol’s third district has raised the need for government to seek help from cybercrime experts and to increase the salary for government information technologists who would protect the country from recurring threats of cyberattacks.
In a statement, Tutor said it does not look like the hacking into the House website is the handiwork of the same people who hacked PhilHealth. But the level of the hacking skills used, she said, would be closer to those who hacked the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) websites.
She said the offices of Speaker Martin Romualdez and the House of Representatives Secretariat are working on the “unauthorized access” to the House website, including coordination with the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), and the cybercrime units of the Department of Justice and National Bureau of Investigation (DOJ).
“It would only be a matter of time before the perpetrators of these IT system intrusions are traced and identified. As to arrest and prosecution, the House
will have to confer with the DOJ on that.
Troubling though is the revelation of the DICT that they have been investigating about 3,000 reports,” said Tutor, who chairs the House committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation and member of the Committee on Information and Communications Technology.
She added, “Given the limited DICT personnel and budget, DICT clearly needs help, so it may be necessary to bring in experts from Interpol, our ASEAN neighbors, and maybe from the United States and Japan, in addition to those among the country’s 200 certified cybersecurity specialists.”
She said DOJ and DICT would have to make the decision since it would be” their judgment call and prerogative.”
“Our country does have international bilateral and multilateral anti-crime agreements and arrangements which could be activated,” said Tutor.
She said DICT might also want to consult with the Department of Finance on funding because the World Bank recently approved a $600 million loan to the Philippines specifically on digital and information technology.
Salary for gov’t ITs
Tutor also suggested that to keep the government’s IT experts from going abroad or transferring to the private sector, she suggested that their salaries should be increased.
Tutor added that she would coordinate with Civil Service Commission Chairman Karlo Nograles for “exploratory discussions” on how the qualification standards, compensation and benefits of cybersecurity specialists and other IT specialists in government service can be improved.
“Perhaps, more plantilla positions can be created, especially for critical IT agencies and units of the national government, as well as regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over strategic or critical infrastructure,” said Tutor.
For the lawmaker, IT specialists are “nearly indispensable in any government office, but their compensation and benefits are not commensurate to the valued service that they provide.”
She emphasized that recruitment standards should be “strong enough” to make sure those who are hired in the government really “possess the knowledge, skills, attitude and values” to counter all forms of system breach.
Tutor proposed that those who have basic computer operation skills should get salary grades lower than Salary Grade (SG) 11.
At present, SG 11 salary ranges from Step 1 at P27,000 per month to P29,075 at Step 8.
Applicants who have “superior qualifications, relevant private sector experience and expertise,” however, should get higher SG levels such as SG 22 to 25.
SG 22 at Step 1 is at P71,151 a month while SG 25 ranges from P102,690 at Step 1 to P115,012 at Step 8.
But applicants or aspirants who have superior qualifications, relevant private sector experience, and expertise should be for the higher salary grade levels. Perhaps, those who have cybersecurity qualifications and experience should be in the range of SG 22 to 25.
SG-22 Step 1 is at P71.151 monthly while SG-25 ranges from P102,690 at Step 1 to P115,012 at Step 8.
“I believe these levels of compensation and the benefits in government service would be enough to entice homegrown cybersecurity experts,” Tutor said.
