PROTECT Doing Business Amidst New Threats Conference Agenda

Introduction

While the global security risk and threat in 2024 may be described as “unprecedented", 2025 may be described as “unconventional”. We see this in geopolitical tensions, gray zone warfare actions, AI arms race, rising insider threats, fragmented extremism and other developments.

PROTECT 2025 conference on Doing Business Amidst New Threats will deep dive into the security challenges affecting doing business today.

AGENDA

8:30 – 9:30         Opening Ceremonies 

Opening Address 

Secretary Eduardo Año

National Security Adviser

National Security Council

Keynote Address

Gen. Romeo S. Brawner, Jr. PA

Chief of Staff

Armed Forces of the Philippines

The Shift From Internal Security To Territorial Defense 

Professor Rohan Gunaratna

S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

SECURITY IN THE NEW GLOBAL ORDER: A WORLD OF GEOPOLITICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL AND NATURE UPHEAVAL

SESSION 1 – DIGITALIZATION AND CYBER THREATS - Panel Discussion

Digital technology has been changing the ways businesses are done and will continue to do so each year. Meantime, cyber threat actors are applying more advanced and sophisticated technologies to challenge cybersecurity. Understanding what is happening in the world now is therefore no longer an option but is an absolute necessity. The future is rapidly developing whether we like it or not. Adapting to change, if not done strategically can be disastrous.

For discussion:

9:30 – 10:05.                A. Digital Identity

• Digital identity to prevent digital fraud

• De-centralized identity

• Passwordless

• Passkeys

Invited/Confirmed Panel Members: Mr. Tim Scyner, Senior

Director for Fraud and Compliance of InTouchCX;

Mr. Shaibal Saha, Asia Pacific Digital Trust Leader of IBM

10:05 – 10:35            B. Cyber Threats

• Use of AI for threat management

• Managing supply chain-related cyber-threat

• Building cyber resilience for ransomware

Invited/Confirmed Panel Member: Mr. Niel Pandya, APAC

Cyber Digital Trust Lead of IBM

10:35 – 11:15.  C. Cybercrime: The Legal Aspects

• What crimes can be filed under the Cybercrime Prevention Act

• What warrants are available under the law

• How do you preserve and present Digital Evidence

• Cybercrime statistics and other information

Invited/Confirmed Panel Members: Mr. Rodan G. Parrocha, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor of Office of Cybercrime-Department of Justice (DOJ); Atty. Jeremy Lotoc, Chief of Cybercrime-National Bureau of Investigation (NBI); Brig. Gen. Bernard Yang, Acting Director of Anti- Cybercrime Group-Philippine National Police (PNP); Undersecretary Alexander Ramos, Head of Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center-Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)

SESSION 2 – HUMAN AND HEALTH ISSUES
This particular session aims to provide an awareness of human health security and the interactions of key issues and events. It cross cut through health, education, and security. The existential problems of Health security are:

For discussion:

a. Human resource for health – There seems to be a misalignment across education, regulatory qualifications for skills and jobs/work in this sector. As a result, there may be further health inequity, compromising security. Will AI affect human development and work?

b. New forms of epidemics – What’s happening in the global scene. TB has never left us and is becoming worst. Reports of monkey pox, new strains of viruses. HIV in Philippines still on the high side. Do we have a plan?

c. Food security and nutrition – Recent news of food insecurity to level of emergency. While this is often an issue of agriculture and economics, how should the education sector respond to address malnutrition in children, what is the forecast for the future in terms of the competitiveness of our human capital, and what can we do to prepare the business sector leadership. Malnutrition is a serious social determinant of health.

d. With the projected rising cost of Health care: how will this affect business and society?

Invited/Confirmed Panel Members: Dr. Dexter Galban, RN,MPA, MPM, Assistant Secretary for Operations – Learner Support Services of Department of Education; Dr. Daisy Tagarda, Infectious Diseases Specialist of Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases; Ms. Justine Raagas, Executive Director of Philippine Business for Education, Development Sector Professional

12:30 – 2:00       Lunch

SESSION 3 – ENVIRONMENTAL/CLIMATE ISSUES

The changing environment affects the business world. They impact on business practices from resources, to supply chain, to logistics, to energy sources, to customer behavior and demographics.

For discussion:

• Policy and governance

• Food wastes

• Energy conservation and efficiency

• Adaptation

• Mitigation

Invited/Confirmed Presenters: Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga of Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Secretary Robert E.A. Borje, Vice Chairperson and Executive Director of Climate Change Commission; Undersecretary Ariel F. Nepomuceno, Administrator of Office of Civil Defense & Executive Director of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council; Mr. Alexander Ablaza, President of Philippine Energy Efficiency Alliance (PE2) and CEO of Climargy; Dr. Jose P. Leviste, Jr., PCCI Chairman of Committee on Environment and Climate Change; Mr. Augustus Caesar Esmeralda, President and Managing Director or Ace And Associates Risk Management, Inc.; Dr. Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay, Executive Director of UP Resilience Institute and Director of UP Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) Center;

SESSION 4 – TRANSNATIONAL ISSUES
These are cross-border phenomena that concern both international and domestic security. Heightened concerns about transnational crimes are a consequence of advances in transportation and telecommunication. Many times, businesses become instruments or victims of such crimes.

For discussion:

• • Organized crime: a growing threat to the national and international security

  • Penetration of state institutions, corruption and threats to governance

  • Threats to economy, U.S. competitiveness and strategic markets

  • Crime-Terror Insurgency Nexus

  • Expansion of drug trafficking, tobacco smuggling

  • Human Smuggling

  • Weapons trafficking

  • Intellectual property theft

Invited/Confirmed Panel Members: Secretary Jesus Crispin S. Remulla, Chairperson, Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking-Department of Justice; Undersecretary Isagani R. Nerez, Director General of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA); Atty. Ernesto V. Perez, Director General of Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA); Atty. Brigitte M. da Costa-Villaluz, Director-General of Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL); Dr. Rommel Banlaoi, Chairman of Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence & Terrorism Research

SESSION 5 – NATIONAL ISSUES

Two major security issues confronting the Philippines today are:

• Cyber attacks - our location near China and North Korea, known sponsors of cyber attacks, renders us greatly vulnerable to such attacks, with government, healthcare, education and the retail sector as main targets for now

• Our relations with the US and China
  
  

Invited/Confirmed: Gen. Benjamin P. Defensor, Former Chief of Staff, AFP and Commanding General, PAF and Former Chairman, APEC Anti-Terrorism Task Force