House halts DICT budget talks over online safety concerns

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives late Wednesday held off from further discussing the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) proposed 2027 budget, as lawmakers flagged online safety concerns during floor debates on the agency’s spending plan. 

Philreca party-list Rep. Presley de Jesus motioned that debates on DICT’s P10.68 billion be deferred as lawmakers would rather await the results of its efforts to curb harmful online content, crack down on scams and secure agreements with social media platforms.

“This committee must also be able to determine what happened after those actions were initiated,” he told lawmakers on the floor.

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“Without that information, it is difficult for Congress to properly assess the resources being requested are producing the intended outcomes,” he added.

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The House majority bloc supported de Jesus’ motion to shelve DICT’s budget debates with no objections. 

Deputy Speaker and IloIlo Rep. Janette Garin, who presided over Wednesday’s session, explained the motion stemmed from the minority bloc’s concern that efforts to curb scams and protect children from harmful online content “has not been addressed well.”

READ: House panel approves social media ban for kids

The DICT has been thrust into the spotlight for its efforts to police harmful content seen by children online after a string of school violence, particularly two recent school shooting incidents carried out by students in Tacloban City and Zamboanga City that resulted in several deaths and injuries.

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Add to that a lingering concern over online scams, and the situation has brewed mounting frustration among lawmakers that ultimately prompted them to put on hold the DICT’s budget.

De Jesus asked FPJ Panday Bayanihan party-list Rep. Brian Poe, who sponsored the DICT’s budget on the floor, what initiatives the agency had undertaken with social media platforms to address concerns over harmful content and online scams.

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“The two non-negotiables are one: that they open an actual office here in the Philippines so that they can be held accountable; and two: for the sake of accountability and protection on social media, the requirement of a National ID to create and maintain an account on the Meta platform here,” Poe said.

Meta Platforms, Inc., Facebook’s parent company, “seems open to these requirements,” said Poe.

Poe added that DICT had invited Meta Platforms chairman and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg to the Philippines “to ask him to confront these issues… although there was no response.”

The Philippines’ call for greater coordination with social media companies come as their platforms face mounting global backlash over youth access and the lack of guardrails for minors online.

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In the US, Meta agreed to pay as much as $18 billion to settle a landmark lawsuit alleging its platforms deliberately hooked minors and harmed children./gsg