This nationwide mobile training on cybercrime takes effect this month after a recent directive approved by PNP director general Arturo Lomibao, said police superintendent Gilbert Sosa, who heads CIDG's Anti-Transnational Crime Division.

The PNP's cybercrime unit will initially send its operatives to train policemen in Region 7, Region 4, and Region 3 including Davao City. 'Outside of Metro Manila, these areas have the most number of PC users,' Sosa said in an interview with Computerworld Philippines.

The training will give emphasis on teaching regional policemen on how to properly preserve evidence during cybercrime-related cases, said Sosa. Police raids on suspected 'cyber sex' dens are an example of a cybercrime case, he noted.

'They (regional police) don't have the capability to analyze evidence yet so what we'd like to do is train them on how to properly preserve evidence until such time it reaches the forensics lab here in our headquarters,' Sosa said.

The CIDG's cybercrime unit is composed of some 15 personnel, most of them graduates of Computer Science who have undergone certification via a grant from software firm Microsoft. The group is also partly funded by a grant from the Anti-Terrorism program of the US State Department.