Filipinos gaining notoriety in cyber world - DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco

About a year ago, the Filipino gained notoriety in the cyber world when a student from a local computer college unleashed, perhaps accidentally, the love bug virus that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and lost productivity. Last week, Time magazine carried a troubling article that proclaimed in no uncertain words, that "the Philippines has become a haven for crooked computer programmers."

President GMA, Secretary Mar Roxas, Secretary Raul Roco and the presidents of Ateneo and La Salle as well as leading business conglomerates should go out of their way to read the article in the April 16 issue of Time. It will bother their conscience, as it bothered mine. Not only is so much raw talent going to waste, they are also now being used in cyber crime.

Daffyd Roderick, a Time reporter, followed one such young computer genius and documented clearly what went wrong. The young man who goes by the code name Eyestrain, steals credit card numbers from e-commerce sites. He uses these numbers to make purchases on the net, including his top-of-the-line computer equipment.

Eyestrain comes from a poor family in Lucena and he was 12-years-old when his school got its first computer. It was love at first touch of the keyboard. He spent a lot of his free time working on the computer. He went to Manila for further training and enrolled at Gus Lagman's STI when he was 17. Time reports that Eyestrain found the classes disappointing because he knew more than his teachers. He went to another computer school but soon gave up on formal computer education.

But because he didn't have a college degree, he couldn't get a good job. As one of the computer firms told Time, they couldn't risk hiring one who didn't finish school. It has something to do about the need for certified skills. So he ended up with the cyber underworld, hacking e-commerce websites, stealing credit card numbers.

Eyestrain, like the love bug virus creator, came from poor families. Their talents notwithstanding, they soon enough reached a dead end. "Hackers in the Philippines tend to be overtrained, underutilized minds trying to satisfy their creative yearnings." Their problems, Time continued, besides stinging poverty, include "political instability and the wrong kind of computer training."

Sayang. As Time puts it, we have the raw talent but something keeps us "from following India as a beneficiary of low-cost Internet spin-off jobs, either in software or services like call centers or technical support help desks." Time estimates some 350,000 students are enrolled in computer colleges all over the country, "but there are far fewer jobs to match their skills."

Time sympathetically views our "vast underworld of hackers." Most of them, the Time magazine writer surmises, "aren't so much malicious as stifled. They have skills, some creative flair and a steak of cybercourage." And they do what they do because "they can't get a mainstream job in the impoverished Philippines."

Maybe Ateneo and La Salle, being credible institutions of learning with strong social commitment, can come up with an accreditation program for these cyber geniuses. Scholarships could be given for a course program that will build on the skills these hackers already have. Eventually, the skills certification in the form of an associate degree, may be enough to get them gainfully employed and out of the underworld.

The case of Eyestrain shows that it is not enough to put computers in our public schools. We are just creating more frustrated Eyestrains among our youth. We need a program to identify the really good ones and shepherd them into productive endeavors.

Gus Lagman's STI and also AMA have key roles. But if the Time magazine article is to be believed, it seems they are nothing more than diploma mills. STI should have been able to identify Eyestrain as exceptional. AMA should have been able to do the same for Onel de Guzman of the Love Bug virus fame. Exceptional talent like them shouldn't be lost to the underworld.

Eyestrain's story is an eye opener. President GMA should put a Cabinet task force to immediately get a viable program going to harness such talent and skills now being used to pilfer credit card numbers and creating viruses. The private sector too, should do something quick. Eyestrain and young people like him are national assets. They should be recognized and fully developed.

Go away

It is fast turning out that the only way Equitable PCI Bank can be saved is for the Go family to go away. Winston Garcia of GSIS has a point when he refused to support a fund raising plan unless the Go family increase their equity contribution first.

They should also give up extra seats they occupy on the board not commensurate to their 30 percent holdings. I was surprised that a daughter of one of the Gos is representing the small shareholders in the bank. I don't remember being asked to vote for a representative and I am a small shareholder. It is a definite anomaly that a member of the controlling family is representing small shareholders.

The situation at the bank has put SSS's Lanny Nañagas on the spot. If he takes a hard stand against helping save the bank, SSS could lose its investment worth P15 billion when Chuckie Arellano bought it. Lanny, who is a veteran banker, also knows that our banking system will be severely rocked if the third largest bank gets into serious trouble. As a member of the Arroyo team of economic managers, Lanny can't allow that to happen.

That's why Lanny is willing to put in another P2 billion in the bank, no matter how distasteful this is to him. Maybe, if Lanny will make it a condition for the Go family to sell out or give up control of the bank, including the chairmanship, then the poor SSS members will understand. But using SSS money to perpetuate the hold of the Go family is too much to take.

I also find it disconcerting that a top SSS official, who was part of the Arellano team that made all those ruinous investments of SSS, continues to hold a high position in SSS and also sits in the board of Equitable PCI Bank collecting fabulous allowances and perks. He might be a career officer and a technocrat but he and Chuckie are to blame for the problems of SSS now. His continued presence in SSS top management reduces the credibility of the current crop of SSS officers, specially when they ask for a premium hike.

Lanny must search deep within the ranks of the career officers of SSS for a replacement of this senior official and others who helped Chuckie do what he did which resulted in an P8-billion loss for SSS members like you and me. And if this official has any delicadeza, he should, on his own, resign from the directorships and even his position in the SSS. Only then can Lanny start rebuilding what Chuckie and his gang ruined.

Good lawyers

The thought for today comes from reader Chito Santos.

Q: What’s the difference between a good lawyer and a great lawyer?

A: A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])