Nananakot sa text? DOJ: Harassment of online lending companies illegal

By James Hernandez

Online lending companies can’t harass those who owe them money, Department of Justice-Office of Cybercrime (DOJ-OOC) Officer-in-Charge Charito Zamora warned.

Zamora issued the warning in a public advisory dated April 23 “in response to the increasing number of reports received and endorsed to it involving unfair debt collection practices and cyber harassments by online lending companies (OLCs).”

She cited that among the complaints her office received include the accessing the debtors’ phone book/contacts list for purposes of sending them messages in the event of untimely and/or non-payment; posting the debtors’ personal and sensitive personal information online for purposes of shaming them; threatening debtors with death and physical injuries if they fail to settle their account balances; and using profane language through text message directly sent to the debtors and to the debtors’ references for purposes of shaming them.

Zamora warned OLCs engaged in such practices violate the Revised Penal Code (RPC); Repoublic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012; and RA 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

“Republic Act (R.A.) No. 10175 criminalizes the crime of illegal access, which it defined as the access to the whole or any part of a computer system without right,” she said.

“The same law reaffirms the crime of libel under Article 3554 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) committed through a computer system or any other similar means, which may be devised in the future,” she added.

While, Zamora said the Data Privacy Law “criminalizes certain acts, such as Unauthorized Processing of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information, Processing of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information for Unauthorized Purposes and Malicious Disclosure.”

Also, Zamora pointed out that under the RPC “OLCs engaged in unfair debt collection practices may be held liable for any of the crimes of grave8 or light9 threats, grave10 or light11 coercions, or unjust vexation12 in relation to Section 613 of R.A. No. 10175.”

She also reminded OLC that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has already issued a circular back in 2019 prohibiting unfair debt collection practices.”

Zamora advised the public experiencing harassment from OLCs to file complaints before the DOJ-OOC,the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG), the National Bureau of Investigation-Cybercrime Division (NBI-CCD), the National Privacy Commission (NPC), and the SEC.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)