A bill aimed at countering financial scammers was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday, seeking to protect Filipinos from various financial hacking schemes.

Known as the Anti-Financial Scamming Act (AFASA), Senator Mark Villar presented Senate Bill No. 2560 during a plenary session under Committee Report No. 204.

“Ang pinaghirapan ng ating mga kapwa Pilipino na para sana sa kanilang pang-araw-araw na gastusin ay ninanakaw lamang ng mga scammers. These are heinous crimes against our people, Mr. President, and it is upon us to ensure that they will be put to a stop as soon as possible,” Senator Mark said.

According to Villar, when the AFASA becomes law, it will serve as the primary legislation to punish scammers and provide Philippine financial institutions with legal assistance in their fight against the increasing threat of scams. The proposed bill also emphasizes stronger provisions that grant the nation’s financial institutions more power, authority, and risk management systems to monitor the financial transactions of account owners who are likely to be suspicious and questionable.

“The AFASA will provide safety measures that will go after financial cybercrimes, such as being a money mule, committing social engineering schemes, and economic sabotage. AFASA also provides the responsibility of responsible institutions to protect and secure their clients’ financial accounts, such as mandating them to have adequate risk management systems and controls, including but not limited to multi-factor authentication (MFA), fraud management systems (FMS), and other account-holder enrollment and verification processes,” Senator Villar highlighted in his speech.

Senator Villar cited several incidents of scams in the previous year in which Filipinos lost millions of dollars to scammers. Over 8,000 Filipinos lost over Php 155 million to various scams in the first eight months of 2023. He displayed films of scam victims during his address, one of whom is a cancer patient whose e-wallet account included money that was purportedly taken out for his chemotherapy and medications.

“Magkakaroon na po ng solusyon ang ating mga kababayan na maibalik sa kanila ang perang kanilang pinaghirapan nang hindi na kinakailangan na dumulog sa alin mang hukuman, kung ang dahilan ng scam ay ang kapabayaan ng ating mga banko, e-wallets, at financial institutions,” Villar emphasized.

“Scammers should not be given further slack to continue their opportunist activities against unwilling victims. The false promise of these scammers should be shattered by our unwavering commitment to provide a Philippines where scammers do not proliferate. Through the AFASA, we are looking forward to the future of a scam-free Philippines,” Villar added.

His sponsorship was overwhelmingly supported by the Senate, as the Senate President Migz Zubiri, Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, and Senators Win Gatchalian, Bong Revilla, and Jinggoy Estrada have also delivered their co-sponsorship speeches, supporting the AFASA bill.