Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla expects a rise in the conviction of cyber-related cases following the implementation of the SIM Registration Act which starts this Tuesday (Dec. 27).
“We are hopeful that with the full implementation of the law, these case disposition and conviction rates will be further improved,” Remulla said during a press conference prior the Dec. 27 implementation of the law.
Because of this, the secretary declared that the DOJ is “fully supportive of the SIM Registration Act and its IRR (implementing rules and regulations) because this will address one of the common challenges in the investigation and prosecution of cybercrime and cyber-related cases.”
Remulla cited that National Prosecution Service (NPS) statistics show that “the case disposition rate in relation to cybercrime has increased from 601 cases in 2020 to 1,218 cases in 2022, with 30% conviction rate in 2022 compared to 25% in 2020.”
“Moreover, in my capacity as Chairperson of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), I believe I can speak for the rest of the IACAT member agencies when I say that we fully support the implementation of the SIM Registration Law and its IRR as this will be an added tool for law enforcement agencies in enforcing laws against trafficking in persons (TIP) and online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC),” he also pointed out.
Citing a study on OSAEC conducted by the International Justice Mission (IJM and IACAT, the DOJ chief said “the estimated number/prevalence rate of IP addresses used for child sexual exploitation (CSE) each year more than tripled between 2014 (23,333) and 2017 (81,723).”
“Further, the Philippines received more than eight times as many referrals as any other countries identified by the global law enforcement case data,” he said.
Remulla also cited a study conducted by the the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) which reported “a 130% increase in STRs (suspicious transaction reports) that may involve OSAEC from 2019 to 2020.”
“STR data originated from Covered Persons (CPs) such as Money Services Businesses (MSBs), Electronic Money Issuers (EMIs) and Banks, with majority of the STRs coming from MSBs (97%) for the period from 2019 to 2020,” he noted.
“This shows that majority of the funds associated with child pornography remitted by offenders from other countries are coursed through money changers and remittance agents,” he added.
Since remittance transactions require mobile numbers of senders and receivers, Remulla said “offenders or victims may easily be identified and located using mobile numbers in potential OSAEC cases.”
