12 bank hacking victims seek NBI help
SOME 12 public school teachers and Department of Education (DEPED) employees who were victimized by online fraud and “unauthorized” transactions from the Landbank payroll account sought the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday.
The Teacher’s Dignity Coalition ( TDC) formally submitted the individual requests from 41 teachers from six DEPED regions — NCR and Regions I, III, IV-A, IV-B, V and VI.
The group consolidated the information of the victims and said the amount involved has reached P1, 991, 265 so far while the amount stolen from individual victims ranges from P1, 000 to P292,130.
Labor lawyer and TDCcounsel Atty. Luke Espiritu, of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) and a a senatorial aspirant under the Partido Lakas ng Masa or PLM , accompanied the teachers in a scheduled meeting with Atty. Vic Lorenzo, of NBI’s Cybercrime division.
“Teachers are yet again at the receiving end of institutional neglect, this time, from the very institution entrusted with the sacred trust of protecting their hard-earned savings, the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP),” Espiritu said.
The group said teachers are now targets of brazen attacks on their ever-dwindling bank savings, which the LBP failed to prevent.
Benjo Basas, TDC national chairperson, said the LBP quickly dismissed their initial reports as mere “isolated incidents.”
“We have reported these incidents to our agency, the Department of Education (DepEd) and our letter was endorsed to LBP.
“But prudence leads us to take one more step and brought these anomalies to the attention of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for proper extraction of facts, administration of justice, and for fair and immediate restitution,” Basas said.
“The law exacts ‘extraordinary diligence’ on all banks, and for good reason, but the LBP has failed to hold this sacred trust in highest regard and permitted these atrocities repeatedly. This was despite the earlier reports made by the victim teachers, which took the LBP many days to even initiate a response,” the group said.
