Fifteenth Congress
Second Regular Session
Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-fifth day of July, two thousand eleven.
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10175
AN ACT DEFINING CYBERCRIME, PROVIDING FOR THE PREVENTION, INVESTIGATION,
SUPPRESSION AND THE IMPOSITION OF PENALTIES THEREFOR AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:
CHAPTER I
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
Section 1. Title. — This Act shall be known as the "Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012″.
Section 2. Declaration of Policy. — The State recognizes the vital role of information and
communications industries such as content production, telecommunications, broadcasting electronic
commerce, and data processing, in the nation’s overall social and economic development. The State
also recognizes the importance of providing an environment conducive to the development,
acceleration, and rational application and exploitation of information and communications technology
(ICT) to attain free, easy, and intelligible access to exchange and/or delivery of information; and the
need to protect and safeguard the integrity of computer, computer and communications systems,
networks, and databases, and the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and data
stored therein, from all forms of misuse, abuse, and illegal access by making punishable under the law
such conduct or conducts. In this light, the State shall adopt sufficient powers to effectively prevent and
combat such offenses by facilitating their detection, investigation, and prosecution at both the domestic
and international levels, and by providing arrangements for fast and reliable international cooperation.
Section 3. Definition of Terms. — For purposes of this Act, the following terms are hereby defined as
follows:
(a) Access refers to the instruction, communication with, storing data in, retrieving data
from, or otherwise making use of any resources of a computer system or
communication network.
(b) Alteration refers to the modification or change, in form or substance, of an existing
computer data or program.
(c) Communication refers to the transmission of information through ICT media,
including voice, video and other forms of data.
(d) Computer refers to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electrochemical, or other data
processing or communications device, or grouping of such devices, capable of
performing logical, arithmetic, routing, or storage functions and which includes any
storage facility or equipment or communications facility or equipment directly related to
or operating in conjunction with such device. It covers any type of computer device