Marcos cites need to develop systems vs. cyberattacks

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Monday underscored the need to develop systems that will protect the country from any attacks in the cyberspace.

This as Marcos witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in a ceremony at the President’s Hall in Malacañang Palace.

Under the deal, the NGCP is set to provide technical assistance to the NICA when it comes to energy-related security issues, which will greatly contribute to the agency’s endeavors in cybersecurity.

"We are continuing to shore up our defenses when it comes to cybersecurity. And since NGCP is a critical part of our security, of our ability to continue to function as a society, then this is an important day because now we have made more robust the defenses against any possible attacks on our power systems, on any other of the elements in our everyday lives that require power; and for that matter, that require the exchange of secure information amongst ourselves in society," Marcos said in his speech.

The President mentioned that "there have been fears that the involvement of any foreign entity in our power transmission system would present a security threat to the Philippines."

"Well, this is a very good step towards answering that challenge. It is but one step because we are continuing to do this not only with NGCP," he said.

"But we are developing our cyber systems so that we are secure and so that the data that we need to collect and to disseminate is available to us, and we are able to do and handle that data in a secure fashion without the risk of it being used somehow against the Philippines," Marcos said.

According to Marcos, his government will ensure that the Philippines will be free from cyber threats as he wants to also ease the burden of the public against security threats.

"It is a good signal to all of us who have concerns in this regard that we are doing many things to make sure that the Philippines remains secure, that the Philippines remains in accordance with international law, that the Philippines and its people can rest assured that their territory, their data, their personal information will not be used against us and that they can feel secure," he said.

In his speech, Marcos also expressed gratitude to NGCP president Anthony Almeda for the initiative. The chief executive mentioned that he and Almeda were classmates and that they were not able to finish a special course in economics.

"So I thank, of course, Anthony – Anthony is known to me because we were classmates together. We were studying economics actually, Asia Pacific. But pareho kaming hindi nagtapos. But I know him well and I’m happy that he has taken the lead in this," he said.

Almeda told reporters that this was a special diploma course in economics at the University of Asia and the Pacific.—AOL, GMA Integrated News