EASTERN Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said Sunday his panel was now readying a proposal to classify as economic sabotage punishable by life imprisonment the use of skimming machines to make illegal withdrawals from the automated teller machines.
Evardone, the head of the committee on banks and financial intermediaries, said a tougher law was needed against ATM scams because those were considered merely theft despite the involvement of millions of pesos.
He said banks had been complaining that suspects could afford to post bail of P15,000 to P20,000.
“I have met with the security heads of different banks and they have raised their problem,” Evardone said.
“You arrest the suspects and tomorrow they are out on bail. That is a big problem for them because the law is obsolete.”
Evardone said an illegal withdrawal made through a skimming machine was a clear case of economic sabotage and for which bail should not be allowed.
And because many of the suspected perpetrators were foreigners, Evardone said, the proposed law would secure their extradition.
He said while banks had adopted safety measures to prevent fraud, criminals were clever enough to find ways to perpetuate ATM skimming.
He appealed to the central bank to cut short the June 2018 deadline to change the ATM cards of clients who are still using magnetic stripes.