CIDG puts up center vs Internet-related crimes

MANILA, Philippines – The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) will put up an Internet and Child Protection Center to prevent the spread of Internet-related crimes, especially among children, Chief Superintendent Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr. said Wednesday.

“We will open up a center here because though not alarming, we have recorded increasing computer-related crimes,” Pagdilao said.

“We have at least 72 computer related crimes last year and for the first semester of 2011, we already have 56,” he said.

He said the Internet was being used by criminals because it was easy to view profiles of prospects so he advised people to be careful in using their social network account.

“We’ll be having a legal framework, an organization-capacity building to strengthen our law enforcement, an awareness advocacy for the public to know the do’s and don’ts in using the Internet,” Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa of the CIDG anti-transnational crime division said.

“Servers of these websites were in other countries so we need to cooperate with them to gather evidences; we can do that, in fact we can still preserve a data in 48 hours,” Pagdilao said.

Sosa said that for the past 10 years, Internet use in the Philippines has increased by 1000 percent. “Philippines is now number 17 in the world in terms of Internet use and number five user of Facebook.”

Facebook is the most common social networking site being used by criminals, with 83 percent of Internet users having Facebook accounts, Sosa said.

Sosa said they have laboratories and trained forensic examiners and investigators that would look into these cases.