Senate probers, acting on suggestions from the banking community, are planning to pass remedial legislation imposing stiffer penalties for those involved in ATM “skimming” in a bid to deter theft cases involving automated teller machines.
“We will look into it,” Sen. Francis G. Escudero, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banks, said.
Escudero pointed out that using duplicated bank-issued cards to siphon funds from ATMs is a crime punishable under existing laws. “It’s still theft.”
According to the senator, “theft depends on the amount [specified] in the Revised Penal Code, but it’s still not robbery.”
Escudero explained ATM “skimmers” could land in jail even if no one was physically hurt in committing the crime. “Wala kang tinutukan, wala kang sinaktan, wala kang pinatay, wala kang ginahasa [but] we have sort of penalties [for ATM skimmers] because this is plain and simple theft even if they didn’t harm or hurt anyone.”
But, he added, officials of the victimized bank could charge offenders with the nonbailable case of economic sabotage if the entire amount of cash in the ATM, estimated at P4 million, is stolen.
“Well, if they allege economic sabotage, then it’s nonbailable,” Escudero said. “Whether it’s through ATM fraud; whether it’s through smuggling, it can fall under economic sabotage and it will carry a stiffer penalty.”
Escudero, however, sees no urgency to immediately enact an updated law given the modern technology in the banking system using ATMs. “Perhaps not, but we will look into it; it depends on exactly what the banking sector wants because each ATM can carry a maximum of about P4 million.”
For instance, the senator acknowledged this was “one of the concerns with the Marawi siege because some banks have ATMs there, which might be filled up with cash still or which might not be filled up. “They have several [ATMs] and I think that’s one of the things to look into once they recover the entire area of Marawi, to see which of the ATMs machines are still intact.”