MAKABAYAN bloc members in the House of Representatives have filed a measure urging the proper committee to investigate the hacking and database breach of the Department of Education and other agencies.

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel, together with ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro and Gabriela Women’s Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas filed House Resolution 1610 to that effect.

The solons cited in the resolution report from Jeremiah Fowler, a researcher at cyber-security firm vpnMentor on a non-password protected cloud storage database containing a total of 210,020 records associated with a program called the Online Voucher Application or OVAP.

OVAP is the digital platform established by DepEd and the Private Education Assistance Committee containing the personally identifiable information of students and parents.

“The reported data breach necessitates urgent investigation and action as it not only jeopardizes the personal data of individuals affected but also ensures data privacy and security is paramount in maintaining public trust and protecting national security mandated by these government agencies,” the lawmakers stressed in their resolution.

Aside from DepEd, there are also reported recent data breaches or hacking incidents in several government agencies such as the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Department of Science and Technology.