Gov’t lawyers: Cyber law allows authorities to look into bank transactions

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Government lawyers on Tuesday admitted that collection of traffic data under Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act would include collection of electronic banking transactions.

“Would the collection [of traffic data] also include electronic banking transactions,” Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano Del Castillo asked Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza during Tuesday’s oral argument.

Jardeleza said “yes.”

“Won’t this be a violation of the Bank Secrecy Law,” asked Del Castillo.

The government lawyer said no because the provision is about “hot pursuit of a hacker.”

Del Castillo has been questioning the government lawyer why Congress did not define what is a traffic data that can be collected without intervention from the courts.

Jardeleza admits that he does know why it was not clearly defined.

Under Section 12, traffic data “refers only to the communication’s origin, destination, route, time, date, size, duration or type of underlying service but not content nor identities.”

The same provision allows law enforcement authorities to collect these traffic datas without need of court authorization.

“Power to collect traffic data is subject to abuse,” Del Castillo said then asked.