|
There are eleven (11) categories of transnational crime covered
in the CPCTOC, namely:
1.
terrorism
2.
illegal drug trafficking
3.
trafficking in persons
4. arms
smuggling
5.
money laundering
6. sea
piracy
7.
cybercrime
8.
economic crime
9.
environmental crime
10.
intellectual property theft
11.smuggling of cultural
property
Each transnational crime is defined in the CPCTOC as follows:
Terrorism
Terrorism is the premeditated use of violence or means of
destruction perpetrated against innocent civilians or non-combatants,
or against civilian or government properties, usually intended to
influence an audience. Its purpose is to create a state of fear that
will aid in extorting, coercing, intimidating, or causing individuals
and groups to alter their behavior. Its methods, among others, are
hostage taking, piracy or sabotage, assassination, threats, hoaxes,
and indiscriminate bombings or shootings.
Illegal Drug Trafficking
Drug Trafficking is the illegal cultivation, culture, delivery,
administration, dispensation, manufacture, sale, trading,
transportation, distribution, importation, exportation and possession
of any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential
chemical.
Trafficking in Persons
Trafficking in persons refers to the recruitment, transportation,
transfer or harboring, or receipts of persons with or without the
victim’s consent or knowledge, within or across national
borders by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of
coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position,
taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of the
person having control over another person for the purpose of
exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of
organs.
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of
a child for the purpose of exploitation shall also be considered as
“trafficking in persons” even if it does not involve any
of the means set forth in the preceding paragraph.
Arms Smuggling
Arms Smuggling refers to the act of any person who, through the
use of any fraudulent machinations, shall import or bring into, or
export from, the Philippines, or assist in so doing, any firearm or
parts thereof, explosive or ammunition or machine, implements,
equipment or tools for the manufacture of firearms.
It shall likewise refer to the act of any person who, contrary to
law, shall receive, conceal, buy, sell or in any manner facilitate
the transportation, concealment or sale of said firearms or parts
thereof, explosive or ammunition or machine, implements, equipment or
tools for the manufacture of firearms, ammunition or explosives after
importation, knowing the same to have been imported contrary to
law.
Money Laundering
Money laundering is a crime whereby the proceeds of an unlawful
activity as herein defined are transacted; thereby making it appear
to have originated from legitimate sources. It is committed by the
following:
a)Any person knowing that any monetary instrument or property
represents, involves, or relates to, the proceeds of any unlawful
activity, transacts or attempts to transact said monetary instrument
or property.
b)Any person knowing that any monetary instrument or property
involves the proceeds of any unlawful activity, performs or fails to
perform any act as a result of which he facilitates the offense of
money laundering referred to in paragraph (a) above.
c)Any person knowing that any monetary instrument or property is
required under this Act to be disclosed and filed with the Anti-Money
Laundering Council (AMLC), fails to do so.
Sea Piracy
Sea Piracy is described as (1) an act of any person who, on the
high seas, shall attack or seize a vessel or, not being a member of
its complement, nor a passenger, shall seize the whole or part of the
cargo of said vessel, its equipment, or personal belonging of its
complement or passengers; (2) any attack upon or seizure of any
vessel, or the taking away of the whole or part thereof, or its
cargo, equipment, or the personal belongings of its complement or
passengers, irrespective of the value thereof, by means of violence
against or intimidation of persons or force upon things committed by
any person, including a passenger or member or complement of said
vessel, in Philippine waters, and (3) any person who knowingly and in
any manner aids or protects pirates, such as giving them information
about the movements of the police or other peace officers of the
government, or acquires or receives property taken by such pirates,
or any person who abets the commission of the piracy.
Cybercrime
Cybercrime, according to the Anti-Cybercrime Bill is any act that
refers to any of the offenses such as illegal access, illegal
interception or intentional interception made by technical means
without right of any non-public transmission of computer data to,
from, or within a computer system including electromagnetic emissions
from a computer system carrying such computer data, data
interference, system interference, misuse of electronic devices to
commit such offenses, computer forgery, including intentional input,
alteration, or deletion of any computer data without right resulting
in unauthentic data with the intent that it be considered or acted
upon for legal purposes as if it were authentic, regardless of
whether or not the data is directly readable and intelligible, and
computer fraud. Other offenses include cybersex, or engaging in (a)
establishing, maintaining or controlling, directly or indirectly, any
operation for sexual activity or arousal with the aid of or through
the use of a computer system, for a favor or consideration; (b)
recording private acts, including but not limited to sexual acts,
without the consent of all parties to the said acts or disseminating
any such recording by any electronic means with or without the
consent of all parties to the said acts; (c) coercing, intimidating,
or fraudulently inducing another into doing such indecent acts for
exhibition in the internet with the use of computer technologies; (d)
exhibiting live or recorded shows depicting sexual or other obscene
or indecent acts; (e) posting of pictures depicting sexual or other
obscene or indecent acts; (f) establishing, financing, managing,
producing, or promoting a cybersex operation; (g) participating, in
whatever form, in the cybersex operation; (h) coercing, threatening,
intimidating, or inducing anyone to participate in the cybersex
operation. Other acts of Cybercrime also include Child Pornography,
propagated through a computer system.
Economic Crime
Economic Crime is referred to as commercial crimes and known also
as “white collar” crimes. It is any act characterized by
fraud, concealment, or a violation of trust and are not dependent
upon the application or threat of physical force or violence.
Environmental Crime
Environmental crime is the deliberate evasion of environmental
laws and regulations by individuals and companies in the pursuit of
“personal interest and benefit.” Where these activities
involve movements across national boundaries, or impacts upon the
world as a whole, they can be termed "international environmental
crime.”
The most common types of environmental crime fall under these
major categories: (1) biodiversity; (2) natural resources-related
crime; (3) wastes; (4) banned substances; (5) other environmental
offences like biopiracy and transport of controlled biological or
genetically modified material; Illegal dumping of oil and other
wastes in oceans; violations of potential trade restrictions under
the 1998 Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure
for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International
Trade; Trade in chemicals in contravention to the 2001 Stockholm;
Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants; and fuel smuggling to
avoid taxes or future controls on carbon emissions.
Intellectual Property Theft
Intellectual property theft is used interchangeably with
intellectual property piracy which is the unauthorized copying of
goods, or works such as software, for resale by way of profit or
trade; the production and sale by way of trade of copies of goods
which have been made without the authority of the owner of the
intellectual property; the facilitation of their production, and the
distribution of such goods including importation and retailing;
counterfeiting or pirating of goods facilitated by use of the
Internet or satellite technologies, or piracy or theft of information
or broadcasts, or unauthorized photocopying of books for education
purposes, or of unauthorized end-user piracy of software beyond the
purchaser’s license, or piracy of domain names or company
names, or counterfeiting of currency; the unauthorized manufacture
and distribution of copies of such goods and works which are intended
to appear to be so similar to the original as to be passed off as
genuine examples. This includes use of famous brands on clothing not
manufactured by or on behalf of the owner of the trade mark, and
exact copies of CDs containing any material or software, which are
traded in a form intended to be indistinguishable to ordinary
consumers from the genuine product.
Intellectual property right is “the legal ownership by a
person or business of a copyright, design, patent, trade mark
attached to a particular product or process which protects the owner
against unauthorized copying or imitation. Such property rights are
an important element of product differentiation and confer temporary
monopoly advantages to suppliers” (Pass, Lowes and Davies 1993:
265). The term intellectual property rights include copyright and
related rights, trademarks and service marks, geographic indications,
industrial designs, patents, layout-designs.
Smuggling of Cultural Property
Smuggling of Cultural Property refers to the act of any person
who, through the use of any fraudulent machinations, shall import or
bring into, or export from, transfer from, the Philippines, or assist
in so doing, any cultural properties. Cultural properties are old
buildings, monuments, shrines, documents, and objects which may be
classified as antiques, relics, or artifacts, landmarks,
anthropological and historical sites, and specimens of natural
history which are of cultural, historical, anthropological or
scientific value and significance to the nation; such as physical,
anthropological, archaeological and ethnographic materials,
meteorites and tektites; historical objects and manuscripts;
household and agricultural implements; decorative articles or
personal adornment; works of art such as paintings, sculptures,
carvings, jewelry, music, architecture, sketches, drawings, or
illustrations in part or in whole; works of industrial and commercial
art such as furniture, pottery, ceramics, wrought iron, gold, bronze,
silver, wood or other heraldic items, metals, coins, medals, badges,
insignias, coat of arms, crests, flags, arms and armor, vehicles or
ships or boats in part or in whole.
WHAT WE DO
The Comprehensive Programme to Combat Transnational Organized
Crime (CPCTOC) highlights an integrated approach to the prevention,
combat and eradication of transnational crime, under the following
programme areas for action:
1.legislation and policy development;
2.institutional capacity-building especially strengthening the law
enforcement agencies, banking and finance institutions and local
government units;
3.strategic research, information and intelligence gathering;
4.international cooperation and partnership development with
critical agencies of the international community
Some of the more salient strategies contained in the CPCTOC
geared toward attaining the consensus vision and broad goals are as
follows:
1.harmonization of Philippine laws and ensuring that these are
likewise harmonized with laws, policies and procedures of
international partners;
2.active involvement and participation of local government units
in the fight against terrorism and transnational crime;
3.establishing a national integrated information and intelligence
network through a shared central data base that builds on the
advances of information and communication technology including
linking with the Interpol I-24/7;
4.simplifying operations systems and establishing focal points for
each category of transnational crime, both at the national and local
levels;
5.partnering with civil society for peace and order, public safety
and local and national security;
6.pursuing judicial reforms;
7.continuing conduct of strategic research, case studies on good
practices and cross-country comparative studies identifying critical
success factors and models to prevent, combat and eradicate
transnational crime; and
8.expanding and improving international relations, both
multilateral and bilateral
|
