The cybercrime agency plans to handle 30,000 cases next year with 54 people

The 2027 national budget asks the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, the agency that handles online crime complaints, to take on 30,000 cases in a single year. This year the target is 5,000. That is six times more work, and a lawmaker wants to know who exactly is going to do it.

Manila second district representative Rolando Valeriano, who chairs the House committee on public order and safety, said Congress should make the agency present a costed staffing plan before the budget passes. The agency's staffing table lists 85 authorized positions. Only 54 of them are filled.

The money moves the other way. The 2027 spending plan gives the center P588.75 million in new general appropriations, but the budget for its actual cybercrime prevention, investigation and coordination work drops to P409.48 million from P444.67 million this year. The agency had publicly asked for as much as P1.5 billion.

Why it matters

This is the office behind Hotline 1326, the number you call when someone drains your bank account or your e-wallet. Scam operations have gotten faster and cheaper to run, and the gap being described here is not abstract. It is how long you wait after the money is already gone.

When cybercriminals empty a victim's bank or e-wallet account, every minute matters. We need to know how quickly the government will respond, where the complaint will be directed, and what action will follow.

The catch to watch

There is a second number worth watching. For 2026 the government aimed to forward 100 percent of the cases it handles to the agencies that can act on them. For 2027 that target drops to 50 percent. Valeriano is asking the center to explain the cut and to show how complaints get sorted, meaning which ones are resolved, referred, still pending, or judged not actionable at all. A bigger case target means little if half of it stops at the intake desk.