Lawbytes: The Oblation Award as a Privilege: Recognition for Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s Public Service

The Bible says everything comes to pass. By June 2011, Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal has severed his connection with the University of the Philippines Los Baños College after three and a half years of teaching as Professor and serving as the University Prosecutor. But his pre and post departure from the university were marked by two highlights.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the Plaque of Commendation given by Lt. Col. Dr. Vivian A. Gonzales last March 30, 2011

Last March 30, 2011, he was awarded a Plaque of Recognition for his “significant contributions in the advancement of student discipline and conduct”. Then in July 18, 2011, he was awarded the Oblation Statute by Lt. Col. Dr. Vivian A. Gonzales, for his pursuit of the values of “Prudence” and “Justice” in his public service.

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal receiving his Oblation Award from Lt. Col. Dr. Gonzales last July 18, 2011

One of the trademarks and landmarks of the University of the Philippines and its constituent universities is the Oblation statue which had received a lot of praise and criticism over the years.

But the New Catholic Encyclopedia defined “oblate” as “one offered” or “made over to God”. Putting the awards in this context makes Dr. Atty. Ramiscal truly humbled and moved by the recognition given to him by the Office of Student Affairs Director, Lt. Col. Dr. Gonzales.

The awards are made more especial because the grantor, Lt. Col. Dr. Vivian A. Gonzales is locally and internationally acclaimed as one of the primary figures in the Philippines that have paved for the establishment and success of the National Service Training Program (NSTP) under Republic Act 9163. Lt. Col. Dr. Gonzales is the founder of the Student’s Transformation and Enrichment for Truth – Values Integration and Promotion Inc.(STET-VIP Inc.), a non-stock non-government organization that is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to administer the NSTP training modules which she practically wrote and pioneered in universities and learning institutions all over the Philippines. The focus of these programs is instilling values in the lives of students so they become responsible citizens.

The past years Dr. Atty. Ramiscal served were certainly some of the most turbulent years in UPLB history. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal successfully handled cases that ranged from the killing of a student, serious physical injuries, intellectual property violations, sexual harassment, theft, hazing, and other administrative offenses. He dealt triumphantly with the dregs of UPLB society, threats to his safety and academic position, and grievous absence of resources, armed only with his belief in God’s Justice and Order ruling over the disreputable elements that threaten to infect the core of this otherwise great University.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal would like to acknowledge the fact that many wonderful things have happened to him in UPLB because of God’s Plan including meeting many wonderful people with undeniable integrity, moral credibility and spiritual values in the course of his journey at UPLB. A GREAT THANK YOU to all of them!

And to Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s scores of wonderful students whom he taught in the four disciplines of Philosophy, Law, Humanities and Management, who have taught him important lessons in God Faith and Trust, it is ultimately for them, why he fought so fiercely for their legal rights and why he tried his best to impart to them some of the lessons he learned in life that can arm them as they seek their places outside the confines of the university.

The Oblation award is indeed a reminder that public service is a privilege that should be honored as one’s offering to God.

Law and IT: Wildlife Poaching Online

In one professional forum, Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal was requested to provide information as to how the Internet has been used by environmental criminals to further their activities. Dr. Ramiscal gave these examples:

According to the US Fed News, in May of this year, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigated and had one man arrested for, among others, poaching game with his buddies in Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Polk County during closed season. Among the wild life he unlawfully poached were wild turkey and wild deer. A former convicted felon, his recent criminal activities were unearthed because he brazenly posted pictures of his poaching exploits on the social online site Facebook.

The FWC established an Internet Crime Unit (ICU) that collects and harvests online evidence of criminal activities pertaining to fish, fowl and other wildlife poaching. Elements of this unit made contact with this man and played up to his arrogance to gain his confidence. He then traded pictures of his illegally killed game with the FWC ICU investigators and chatted away in online chatrooms boasting how he killed wild animals. The pieces of online evidence gathered by the FWC ICU people were sufficient enough to cause his arrest for seven felony and six misdemeanor charges.

Cellular phone technology became a crucial source of evidence in the convictions of three people, including a juvenile, in Pennsylvania over two years ago. These criminals stored evidence of their illegal killings of wildlife that included bear, wild raccoon, deer and pheasant on a mobile phone that was lawfully confiscated by law enforcement officers.

In another interesting case reported by the Ecology, Environment & Conservation Business, one individual used an online auction site to sell wildlife “parts”, i.e., feathers from legally protected fowl. The individual advertised the feathers of several endangered and protected birds for sale, which included those of turkey vulture, wild turkey, blue jay, Canadian goose, red shouldered hawk and blackbird. The Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Office discovered the unlawful activities of this individual through one of its officers and it purchased several feathers through online bidding. The feathers were sent for morphologic examination and the online seller was charged for several counts of unlawful possession and sale of wildlife and protected birds.

These cases should serve as examples of some new ways for Philippine legal enforcement and environment officials to harness the Internet technologies to go after offenders who desecrate, pillage, deplete and deprive Mother Nature, and current and future generations of Philippine citizens of irreplaceable protected and endangered wildlife.

Through his advocacies on electronic data and electronic evidence, Dr. Ramiscal continues to engage stakeholders in an examination of their conceptions about electronic data and their applications and implications for many areas of the law and Life as well.

Lawbytes: Law and IT Safeguarding Our Youth Against Cyberbullying (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal has been discussing issues of Internet abuse and human rights violations online and advocating for the rights of affected sectors in the Philippines since 2007.

In one Mandatory Continuing Legal Education seminar that Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal lectured at, a concerned lawyer who is father to two boys asked several questions about cyberbullying. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal quizzed the lawyers present in this way: Does your child surf the internet and has his/her own email accounts, Facebook accounts, Twitter, MySpace, Pocodot subscriptions? Do you monitor your child’s access of the Internet? Has your child seem despondent lately, sullen, angry, irritable or withdrawn after going online? Have you ever discussed why this is so with your child? Does your usually chirpy and energetic kid or ward has all of a sudden expressed or pleaded with you not to go to school, ever? Do you actually listen to your child as to what he said and did not say?

These, and other related questions are some of the matters that parents and guardians must deal with, when their children or wards have fallen prey to a mean breed of cyber abusers: cyberbullies.

Bullying is as ancient as the human race and depending on whom one chooses to believe, this practice can either build or destroy a child’s character. This “sport” has been practiced by children against children and by adults against children in almost every culture. The virulence of this activity has not been contained in classrooms, playgrounds, malls and other physical spaces but has crept in the virtual corners of your child’s computer.

It is disturbing how a six year old, or a ten year old, or a thirteen year old can build virtual profiles of themselves and conduct conversations or transactions with people thrice or even quadruple their age! The anonymity provided by the Internet has served to encourage and mask crimes and other dubious activities. But that should not stop parents and guardians from being vigilant about their children’s or wards’ welfare.

Consider the case of Megan Meier, a beautiful thirteen year old who had some self-esteem issues. She was virtually befriended by a “boy” by the name of “Josh Evans” who apparently was about her age in MySpace. The online relationship was sweet at first then turned into Josh virtually and emotionally bashing Megan to pieces. In his last email to her, he wrote: The world would be a better place without you. This sent Megan to an emotional abyss which caused her to go to her closet and hang herself.

After her death, it was discovered that “Josh Evans” was the concoction of forty seven year old Lori Drew, the mother of Megan’s former girlfriend with whom she quarreled. At the time of her arrest, there was no crime that defined and covered what Drew did. The US prosecutors ultimately charged her for violating the MySpace terms and conditions. She was acquitted of criminal wrongdoing because the judge was not prepared to sentence her to a crime that was entirely based on a violation of an online contract. Megan’s death ushered in some US State laws that penalize cyberbullying. This case should serve as a sobering beacon for advocates of our children’s and youth’s welfare.

Currently, there are no Philippine laws that punish cyberbullying. As a parent or guardian, you do not have to be a passive witness to the virtual abuse of your child or ward. You can do these things:

1. Monitor where your child goes online.
2. Do not let him or her post any personal identifying information, like home addresses, or mobile numbers or even his or her pictures.
3. Supervise his/her chats and IMs to check if he or she has not been contacted by pedophiles.
4. Talk with the website administrators and the Internet Service Provider to take down the offensive content and ban the perpetrator from using their space and services. You can do this if the bullies set up fake accounts for your child which are meant to embarrass or humiliate him or her, or set up websites where they can post pictures of your child and leave it to viewers to vote whether or not he is “hot” or whether or not he should commit suicide.
5. If the culprit is a classmate, talk to the student’s parents, the school administrators and guidance counselors to address the situation.
6, If your child’s picture was placed on top of a nude body and shown on a website, you can seek the help of the NBI and the Department of Justice to arrest the offender and charge him/her with the violation of the Online Child Pornography and Online Boso Laws.
7. Talk with your Barangay Chair, your Councilor, your Mayor, your Governor, your Congressman, your Senator, and those who can lobby for a law against cyberbullying.
8. Last but not the least, listen to your child or ward. Let them know, they are not alone and that they are loved.

Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal. All Rights Expressly Reserved.

Lawbytes: Sextortion In The Workplace (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal was asked in a professional forum several questions about “sextortion” in the academe and in “professional” workplaces. The matters discussed in that forum led him to pose these questions: Have you ever been verbally or “electronically” teased, ridiculed or physically harassed in a way that you find sexually offensive, demeaning and nauseating? Was the perpetrator your supervisor, employer or potential supervisor or potential employer? Have you been asked to do sexual favors in exchange of passing a subject, graduating with honors, getting a job, being promoted or keeping your employment? Were you compelled to submit to the sexual demands out of fear, low self-esteem, and anxieties that your harasser would make your life and those you love, difficult?

If these have happened to you, you are not alone.

Millions have experienced the crime sexual harassment, or “sextortion” all over the world. The rise of electronic communications via the telephone, Internet, (the ancient) pagers, and mobile phones have also caused the exponential soaring of this activity. Unfortunately, this is one of those “silent” crimes that stay just at the level of the subconscious because the victims often endure and bear it for as long as they can, hoping that their harassers would tire and leave them alone. But this survival strategy can result in the harasser twisting the conditions and circumstances and making it appear that it was the victim’s fault or negligence.

Consider a Philippine company nurse, terminated among other things, for gross disrespect. She threw a stapler at a plant manager. The Supreme Court found that in the four years she was employed the manager subjected her to unwanted sexual advances to which she never gave in. The Supreme Court stated “(the plant manager) faced reality soon enough. Since he had no place in private respondent’s heart, so must she have no place in his office. So, he provoked her, harassed her, and finally dislodged her; and for finally venting her pent-up anger for years, he “found” the perfect reason to terminate her” (Philippine Aeolus Auto-Motive United Corporation And/Or Francis Chua vs. NLRC, G.R. No. 124617 April 28, 2000).

Perhaps, a most disturbing effect of sextortion is causing the victim to commit or attempt to commit suicide. For instance, the daughter of the childhood friend of one government doctor attempted to slash her wrists with a fastener after telling her mother how this city government doctor promised her a job if she allowed herself to be the subject of his medical “research”. The doctor’s “research” consisted in asking her intimate questions about her sexual life and sexual orientation that made her feel uncomfortable, then getting her inside his car, instructing her to lower her pants, grabbing one of her legs, inserting his finger in her underwear, clutching her pubic hair, asking her to raise her shirt, fondling her breasts, holding her abdomen, saying, “you are like my daughter, ‘Day’” (a Visayan word of endearment), and letting the back of his palm touch her forehead in a perverse “Mano po” gesture, then paying her three hundred pesos (Jacutin vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 140604, March 6, 2002).

As observed by one Supreme Court Justice, sexual harassment abounds in sick societies. If you experienced this, please be reminded that it is not your fault.

Sextorters thrive over their control and domination of their victims. The way to stop this is to sever the bonds of the predator’s control. The Philippine law against sexual harassment criminalizes the activities of these predators.

The most important thing is for the offended party to do something about it, such as:
1. Prepare an account that provides minute details of the harassment.
2. Save all evidence of harassment including text messages and emails.
3. Save and print out offensive comments placed by the offender in public social networks like MySpace, Friendster or Facebook that pertains to the offended party.
4. Report the activity to the proper authorities. There are several options. One is to report to the administrative authorities, like the school or university president or chancellor or to human resource administrators or senior management for companies.
5. File a criminal case against the perpetrator and also seek civil remedies like moral damages.
6. It would be best to seek the services of a good lawyer as to handling these matters.

Cases like these might drag for years, but by confronting the offender, the offended party reclaims control over his/her life which is the most essential step to moving forward, unfettered by fear or guilt. Families and friends of offended parties should form a network of support and protection. It is only by supporting and protecting our loved ones who courageously step forward, can we address and abate this blight in our society.

COPYRIGHT BY DR. ATTY. NOEL GUIVANI RAMISCAL

Lawbytes: Blogging About Your Boss Can Get You “Dooced” (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

Recently, Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal spoke about the probable legal repercussions of blogging about the workplace. He asked questions like: Feeling the urge to gossip about your boss’s newly enhanced and sculpted cleavage? What about your employer’s endless series of lovers and their hang-ups and diseases? Or the new guy from MedRep who beds your best friend, your boss’s personal assistant, to get your company’s secrets? Or kvetching about what you perceive as your boss’s cutthroat business practices? And what about chatting these up not only in the ladies’ or men’s room, but through your web blog, for the benefit of your thousands of nameless, unknown admirers, who eat everything you say, with delectable comments? Despite your swelling ego, you must ask yourself: Do you think blogging about these is right, in the legal sense? Do you think blogging about these will protect you from being “dooced” or fired?

Google terminated Mark Jen after employing him for eleven days because of his blog which was critical of the company. Friendster, one of the most popular online sites that connect people was not too keen on having one of its own employees, Joyce Park, electronically babble about the company on her blogsite, “Troutgirl” and decided to kick her out. Ellen Simonnetti, an airline stewardess of Delta Airlines, who posted pictures of her in her uniform at her blog “The Diary of a Flight Attendant” was axed from her job amid allegations of sexual discrimination. A British private secretary in Paris, Catherine Sanderson, was sacked for writing about accidental cleavage exposure in the workplace and poking fun at the fashion style of her bosses. Australia’s biggest telecommunications company, Telstra, dismissed one of its paid corporate bloggers, Tom Reynolds, for doing what was deemed the ultimate conceit in customer relations: by posting an inappropriate blog about opening up the communication between the giant company and its customers through his blog.

In the Philippines, the Intellectual Property Code considers trade secrets as part of an employer’s intellectual property. The Revised Penal Code makes it a crime for any manager, employee or servant, who in such capacity, learns the secrets of his or her employer and reveals them. The law punishes the act of disclosure and does not limit the medium of revelation. It thus includes revealing secrets through the Internet. Under the Labor Code such revelation can constitute grounds for just causes of terminating the blogger’s employment. If the employer took reasonable steps to inform the employee about the absolute necessity of non-disclosure and the employee blogged about the secrets anyway, that can be considered a willful dereliction of duty that amounts to a serious misconduct relative to the employee’s work, or willful disobedience of a reasonable and lawful order of an employer.

The Philippine Revised Penal Code also considers criminal the imputation of a crime, vice or defect (whether real or imaginary), act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance that tends to cause dishonor, discredit or contempt of a natural living person, or a juridical person, like a corporation, or blacken the memory of a dead person. The law requires that a third party can identify the subject of the defamation. A blogger motivated purely by spite, who blogs to the whole world of the real and imagined transgressions of the identified employer, not out of any sense of duty or justifiable motive, but solely to bring disrepute to his or her employer, commits this crime.

To avoid these legal issues, these are some sound principles that most companies can benefit from and which bloggers can work with.

First, all trade secrets, confidential information and company intellectual property should not be discussed in blogs.

Second, unless the employee is paid by the company to blog, all blogging activities must be done outside the employer’s premises and on the employee’s own time.

Third, respect and courtesy in communication go a long way in preventing future lawsuits or employment termination.

Fourth, it is prudent for bloggers to state that their opinions are their own and not in anyway endorsed by their employers, specially if they blog about the products or services their employers sell.

Fifth, bloggers must remind themselves that their postings will be read, not only by people they know, but many people they do not know, including future employers. Common sense and discretion are required.

In blogging, as with every virtual activity, be(a)ware of what you commit electronically.

COPYRIGHT BY DR. ATTY. NOEL G. RAMISCAL

Lawbytes: IT, Law, and Marital Infidelity (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

In one of the fora that Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal was privileged to be invited to speak, he was given the challenge of looking at how the computer can actually impact on marriage and relationships. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal qualified his audience by first asking them: Have you ever felt that your mate, partner or spouse is cheating on you electronically? Or have you caught your significant Other in the act of committing virtual infidelity? And what if the means for committing this is your shared laptop? What can you do?

Consider this true case: Mr. W who has been with his wife of almost two decades secretly conducts a love affair with another woman through the internet, using mostly email. The computer he uses is the family’s computer stored in the entertainment area known as the “sun room.” This is the area that all his teenage kids and wife also use for socializing with their friends and getting to the deck where they have the occasional “bar-b.” In one such occasion, Mrs. W, on her way to the deck, spilled several kinds of sauces on the floor. As she bent to clean them up, she noticed that the screen of the computer is still on. She decides to go and turn it off. She accidentally clicked the browser on a certain section of the graphical user interface and lo and behold: a love letter from her husband addressed to another woman named J, flashed on the screen. It contained the many sweet promises her husband used to say to her when they were still a young couple and several other new intimate ways she never thought he was capable of thinking. Her eyes and cheeks stung. Her heart literally stopped beating for a few nanoseconds. Then she came back to her properly soiled hanky, covered the screen with one of her linens, and called out to her friends that she is suddenly not feeling well. They hurried from the deck and promptly left. Then she hires an investigation agency, which sent a cyberforensic specialist to copy all the data from the computer with the objective of finding evidence of her husband’s infidelity. Shortly after, she files for the dissolution of their marital ties, armed with evidence of all the emails her husband wrote to his paramour using their family computer. Her husband argues that she had no legal business going through his computer data, specially his emails, which he considers private. A long, bitter battle ensued with Mrs. W prevailing, but the emotional costs left no apparent winners.

From this and several other true legal disputes in the United States, you must now realize the importance of the family computer as a vessel of incriminating evidence. In the Philippine Electronic Commerce Act, access to an electronic file is lawful when the person who accesses the file has a legal right to the possession or the use of the file for authorized purposes. It can be argued that family computers owned by the spouses are subject to lawful access of each spouse, therefore, no expectation of privacy can be set as a defense by the unfaithful spouse.

But what if the computer was issued by a spouse’s employer? It is in these instances that the employers should have specific guidelines and restrictions as to the usage of company issued laptops to their employees and they should strictly enforce these rules to avoid later complicated legal tussles regarding the possession and ownership of the computer and the electronic data it contains. Company issued laptops should only be used for company purposes and there should be no commingling of company data with personal data.

Husbands and wives in the digitized Philippine society should be aware that when they invest in a computer, no matter what make, model, or configuration, they can unwittingly buy the means by which their marriage can be annulled or voided or at the very least, lead to their legal separation. The seemingly innocent portable laptop or the ordinary family PC can indeed become a trap that can snare the lovesick, the lovelorn, the loveless and unwary.

In matters of love and virtual entanglements, do not get mad. Get everything by getting the electronic data!

COPYRIGHT BY DR. ATTY. NOEL G. RAMISCAL

Law and IT In Libraries: Preservation, Access and Confidentiality Issues In Digital Repositories (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

The De La Salle Philippines, South Manila Inter-Institutional Consortium (SMI-IC), Catholic Education Association of the Philippines National Capital Region (CEAP NCR) Tertiary Library Committee, Philippine Association of Museums, Inc. (PAMI), and the Philippine Normal University Library and Information Science Alumni Association (PNULISAA), Inc., are doing a wondrous thing! They are spearheading a monumental multidisciplinary undertaking of bringing together some of the most important experts and professionals engaged in the library sciences, museums, law, information technology, and the preservation of our knowledge and heritage in a series of seminar workshops to form policies and action plans that can pave the way for greater understanding of the issues relative to safeguarding our heritage.

It was with great pleasure that Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal accepted the invitation to share his expertise with these organizations last May 4, 2011, through the thoughtful invitation of the current PNULISAA President Arturo Morales III.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with Mr. Arturo Morales III and Ms. Jocelyn Ladlad

The Seminar Workshop entitled “Archives: Bringing Past to Present for Good Governance” was held at the Asian Banquet Hall of the tasteful Angelo King Hotel of the College of Saint Benilde, De La Salle University Manila.

Members of the audience while on tea break

The audience was composed of a coterie of friendly and distinguished professionals and the organizers were most efficient and helpful.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal began by reminding the audience of the important fact that access and confidentiality issues can only arise in the context of preserved content.

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal at the Librarians Conference, DLSU CSB

He recounted the fate of some ancient repositories whose façades are the only ones existing, and the knowledge they contained are lost to the world forever. As more and more of current knowledge are created or are born “digital”, public and private repositories must deal and resolve essential issues concerning the selection of content to be preserved, the prioritization of content preservation, the technology, format and processes connected with preservation, and of course, access and confidentiality issues that have legal implications for the repositories and their users.

The lecture of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal delineated some of the most important, but not well known and even misunderstood, repercussions of legal provisions under Philippine laws, which can hamper the important work of librarians, archivists, curators, preservationists, and anyone who considers him/herself as “custodian” of knowledge. These repercussions from the Constitution, the Revised Penal Code, the Civil Code, the E-Commerce Code, special laws and jurisprudence, become more pronounced as the knowledge is transferred from the physical to the virtual realm. Drawing on more than a decade of legal experience and advocacies on legal matters concerning IT tools and electronic data, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal explicated, with examples drawn from different jurisdictions, how the present Intellectual Property Code and some special laws like the Online Child Pornography law can criminalize the legitimate activities of these custodians of knowledge. He urged the participants to form a group that can voice their legitimate legal concerns that they can make known to concerned agencies like the Philippine Intellectual Property Office, the National Library and the Commission on Information Communications and Technologies.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal emphasized that there is no better time to act than now. Electronic knowledge and heritage degrade, become obsolete, corrupted, inaccessible or totally disappear if they are not properly conserved. While physical troves of cultural heritage can remain extant for centuries, the shelf life of unprotected digital knowledge and heritage at most, has been estimated to be for two years. It is crucial then that organizations and professionals engaged in the dissemination and conservation of knowledge and heritage come up with best practices that can address the exigent need of future generations: that is, to know us.

Thank you so much to these organizations that trusted Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the task of bringing these matters to light.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with Mr. Arturo Morales III and Ms. Willian Frias

Great appreciation goes to Mr. Arturo Morales III, Ms. Willian S. A. Frias, Ms. Ana Maria B. Fresnido, Ms. Celedonia R. Cayaban, Ms. Gina B. Araneta and Ms. Teresita P. Dugenia, and the ebullient emcee, Ms. Jocelyn Ladlad. Special thanks to Ms. Mercy Haz and the two nuns/librarians from St. Paul who bought copies of “Noelses”. To everyone, who was there, God Speed your Good!

Thank you!

God Bless Us!

Law and IT: Internet Prostitution and Facilitated Human Trafficking (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

The legal connections between the internet innovations and the commercial sex industries have rarely, if not, been made in any Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lecture before in the Philippines.

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal at Jorge Bocobo Hall, UP Law Center

When Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal was tasked by the University of the Philippines Institute of Administration of Justice (UP IAJ) to give an MCLE Prescribed lecture on this matter, last April 29, 2011, he seized the opportunity to present and relate the legal issues with social, psychological, philosophical repercussions, as well as literary and cultural examples, concerning how we think of our bodies and how that translates to modern day forms of sexual and physical enslavement.

Slavery was supposedly abolished many years ago. International norms, international conventions and legal statutes in different countries prohibit slavery. Mauritius was the last country to abolish slavery in 1980. But did it ever go away? The overwhelming evidence amassed by the United Nations points to the contrary. The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, or the “Palermo Protocol,” which is a supplement to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, directly addressed the multifarious issues of human trafficking. It defined “(t)rafficking in persons” as:

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs . . . The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth…

Over a majority of the independent states have signed, acceded or ratified it. The Philippines signed the Protocol on December 14, 2000 and ratified it on May 28, 2002.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal presented an overview of the history, causes and realities of human trafficking. Furthermore, he showed how the commercial sex industries have penetrated the virtual world as well. Human traffickers use the Internet for a variety of reasons. Websites currently exist as conduits or procurement sites for human infants through surrogate “gestational carriers”. The social network sites are a veritable treasure trove of potential victims, particularly minors, who may fit the requirements of traffickers (including sexual offenders). The vulnerable minors are “groomed” by traffickers and savvy sexual perverts to believe that sex with adults is alright. These people can be the subject of physical abductions for the purpose of commercial prostitution or personal physical and sexual slavery.

The internet is a place where the services of those kidnapped or forced into prostitution are advertised. It is here where pictures of victims of trafficking and sexual crimes are posted and downloaded for profit. There was a 2006 estimate that the annual profit for internet pornography is US $2.8 billion.

Traffickers and sexual criminals also use the internet technology as a place to recruit women and girls to be “internet” brides, which could be another front for prostitution and human trafficking. The profit for trafficking internet brides is substantial enough as seen through the proliferation of websites dedicated to men choosing and buying their wives/slaves. There is evidence that American and Russian criminal gangs have established working relationships and routes to supply the women and girls for these websites to advertise and trade.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal also showed how the commercial sex industries are one of the driving forces behind the development of internet technologies. Prostitution websites have existed since 1994. These websites were at the forefront of delivering live streamed videos of sex models and pornographic films. The search engine technologies benefited from the developments that arose from the need of these industries to provide better relevant materials to their customers.

Unfortunately the Palermo Protocol did not stipulate any mechanism or provision to address Internet facilitated human trafficking. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal gave a survey of several countries including the Netherlands, the US, Australia, Canada and the Philippines. It is only the Philippines, through Republic Act 9208, that provides a legal means of redress against those who use the Internet to “advertise, publish, print, broadcast or distribute, or cause the advertisement, publication, printing, broadcasting or distribution by any means, including the use of information technology and the internet, of any brochure, flyer, or any propaganda material that promotes trafficking in persons”. Furthermore, the provisions of this law are replete with the requirements stated in the Palermo Protocol that are crucial in combating human trafficking.

Prior to his lecture, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal met one of the legal consultants in the drafting of RA 9208, Atty. Bing Guanzon.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with Atty. Guanzon on the left (from the viewer's perspective) and Mesdames Zen Antonio, Teocel Apolona and Riza, IAJ staff, on the right

He congratulated her and those responsible for crafting a commendable law. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal desires to express his gratitude to the UP IAJ Director, Prof. Rowie Daroy Morales, Teocel Apolona, and the rest of the wonderful staff of UP IAJ or this great opportunity to share his research with a great bunch of attentive lawyers that included Attys. Florinida A. Blanca, Eldridge Marvin B. Aceron, Rowena S. Co and Michelle Jan Benitez Babiano. It was truly a privilege!

Attys. Aceron, Babiana and Co after the lecture and book signing of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal

To Atty. Aceron, all the best and greatest results in your “novel” undertaking! And to Attys. Co and Babiano, God speed!

Thank you!

God Bless Us!

Law and IT in Health: BPULS™ Patent and Philanthropy

More than five years ago, Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal delivered a paper which won the Kioulafas Graduate Student paper prize for his research on metadata in Samos Greece. He was able to experience firsthand the compassion and generousity of the Greeks through his eventful visits particularly in Ireon, Athens, Epidaurus and Nafplion.

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal at the Parthenon

It was truly a blessing that he was reminded of these when he had the opportunity to meet this month of April, a beautiful and wonderful vessel of the best of Grecian ingenuity and virtues.

In ancient myth, the beauty of Helen was celebrated as the one who stole Paris’ heart and caused the Trojan war. In contemporary times, one of her namesakes is celebrated for her brilliance in literally saving hearts. Dr. Helen Marcoyannopoulou Fojas,

Dr. Ramiscal with Dr. Helen Marcoyannopoulou Fojas and Prof. Shirley Chaves

one of the top 7 worldwide experts in her medical field, is the inventor of the BPULS™ which is a technological device that ascertains the pulse wave velocity in human beings which can be used as a measure for determining the elasticity of the arteries. The BPULS™ readings, which are based on the method and measurements, invented by Dr. Marcoyannopoulou Fojas “measure…the time delay between the recorded pulses of the left external carotid artery (which provides blood to the head and neck)…and the left dorsalis pedis artery (which delivers blood to the dorsal surface of the foot”. This is achieved through the use of sensors that are attached to the person’s neck and foot. No gels are necessary and the entire procedure is fast, non-invasive, inexpensive and can provide a reliable “full arterial tree assessment”. This would mean that in healthy people, the time delay of the pulse wave velocity from the two arteries would be 25 seconds or less. For overweight and obese people, it would be more than 25 seconds.

Dr. Marcoyannopoulou Fojas has successfully used her machine and method which has been patented internationally (with International Patent publication number WO/2000/013584, US Patent No. 6537226) and in the Philippines, to screen for atherosclerosis in its early stages for vast numbers of individuals and populations, so that cardiovascular ailments can be prevented. One of her many success stories, which she fondly recounted to Dr. Atty. Ramiscal, is her attending to 22 nuns in Sariaya, Quezon whom she screened with BPULS™ and helped bring about their physical healing through her prescription of supervised diets and exercises. Dr. Marcoyannopoulou Fojas is currently seeking to examine prisoners in Philippine jails with the use of BPULS™ because she believes that they constitute one of the most neglected sectors of our society that can still contribute if they are given the chance.

One of Dr. Marcoyannopoulou Fojas’ legacies to the world is her philanthropical spirit. The beauty of her owning the patent to her own invention is that she has control over its dissemination and usage. She does not charge for the use of her machines if they are going to be utilized in rural areas in third world countries. She continues to use her invention, her healing skills and her knowledge to save people who are marginalized because of their economic and social status. Proof of that is her tireless work in government hospitals in the Philippines, her pro bono healing of people who cannot afford her services and her advocacy for the reduction of the dependency and use of medical drugs by patients, supplanted with healthy diet, exercises and great attitude for life.

The Philippines is very fortunate to have her here as a “Balik Scientist” which is a DOST program. She has fallen in love with our country, no doubt in large part, to the fact that her husband, Dr. Marcos Fojas, is a Philippine ophthalmologist. Theirs is truly a life of healing and blessings!

BPULS™ can be availed from Standard Instruments GmbH (www.stdi.de). The technical data is acquired from 2 channels for Optical Blood Pulse Wave Recording and 1 channel for ECG. The sample rates for data resolution is 100-500 Hz. The software can operate on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.5 or higher and Linux Ubuntu 8.04 LTS or higher.

To Dr. Helen Marcoyannopoulou Fojas, may you continue with your advocacies and endeavors with untrammeled success!

Thank You!

God Bless Us!

Law Bytes: THECYBERLAWYER ISSUE 1: The Need for Good E-Governance Re: E-Data and Responsible CIOs in the Philippines, by Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal

In the past eight or so years, I have been traveling, studying, working and living in other countries and exploring and writing about issues concerning electronic data (e-data) and its implications for many sectors and for lay people. When I came back in the Philippines after doing my PhD in Law studies at the University of Queensland, Australia, one of the most important things I embarked on is my advocacy for good e-governance, in particular, corporate responsibility for the preservation and management of e-data.

 

E-data’s importance in the life of a corporation cannot be gainsaid. There are studies which show that 95% to 97% of the data created today are created originally in some kind of electronic format. It has come to a point, at least in some e-intensive knowledge societies, that corporate survival hinges on the corporation’s strategies for managing its e-data legally and correctly.

 

Corruption in government and private sectors, as well as the inefficiency and mishandling of corporate assets that can affect not only the corporation but also many extraneous factors like the natural environment and the private interests of many citizens can be perpetuated and be rendered “undiscoverable” by the deliberate or unintentional destruction or spoliation of e-data.

 

For example, in one US case instituted against a company which was leasing an Indian tribal land for its gasoline business, it was charged for over exploiting the natural resource without paying the owners adequate recompense. The company managed to escape liability because its e-data were not preserved and were destroyed albeit in an irregular and haphazard manner because it had no company wide policy for e-data retention. While the charges against the company cannot be substantiated, the court could not condone the rampant disregard of the company’s senior officials and made them responsible for the destruction of the e-data.

 

Unfortunately, the linkage between e-data and corporate accountability appears to be unappreciated by the pertinent sectors in the Philippines. In a conference I attended last April 23, 2007 at the Dusit Hotel, one of the significant undertakings was the creation of a Chief Information Officer (CIO) Academy in the Philippines. This was due to a consensus that in the Philippines no core competencies exist for CIOs that can serve as standards for their performance. While some of the panelists discussed briefly what some of these competencies should be, there was no discussion about the human relations, intellectual property rights, electronic discovery, IT, and corporate accountability issues that e-data pose for organizations, and which CIOs (or in his/her absence, the CEOs) must handle, and naturally, be familiar with, to steer the corporation through any possible legal and regulatory crises that can arise.

 

The birthing of proper CIOs in the Philippines is questionable at this stage. Individuals who possess the title just because of their position, their profession, or the fact that “they are there,” may not know what it means, or do not appreciate the complexities of the role and responsibilities that a CIO plays in a corporation.In a lecture I gave to the Financial Institute of Executives in the Philippines, I was askedwho or what type of person can serve as CIO. Out of modesty, I did not reply “me.” Instead, I said that the person must be an amalgam of a lawyer or a person who knows the law on evidence, an IT person or a person knowledgeable about the company IT system, a librarian or one who knows how to manage records, an HR person or someone who knows about HR issues, and someone who cares about the corporation. CIOs must be comfortable juggling issues and finding the interconnections between many different disciplines where e-data is concerned.

 

To assist in the birthing, at least in consciousness, of responsible and capable CIOs and in spreading the word about e-data, I intend to write about e-data issues in various contexts in succeeding issues.

 

Copyright by Atty. Noel Ramiscal. The views expressed are my own and do not constitute legal advice. All Rights Reserved.

Law Bytes: TheCyberLawyer Issue 3: A Government Agency Can Be Held Responsible for Destruction of E-Data, by Atty Noel G. Ramiscal (PhD Law)

In a 2006 survey conducted by the American Records Management Association of over 400 companies, it was revealed that government agencies and non-profit organizations are the most ill-equipped corporations when it comes to handling e-data because most of them do not have the appropriate policies in place. This probably stems from the lack of understanding regarding the role of e-data in corporate governance and its legal implications, particularly in government agencies’ responsibility to the public.

In information intensive government agencies, e-data management is crucial not only to secure the corporate operations in a smooth and efficient manner, but also to ensure that corruption is minimized and corporate accountability is observed. Most of us have heard or read reports, or personally experienced less than positive incidents with government agencies where documents that are vital to our purpose went missing or could not be accounted for or could not be retrieved because their records system are in disarray.

Change of offices, change of administration, office investigations and election periods are the crucial times when documents in paper or e-form can suddenly disappear. E-data are quite vulnerable not only to destruction by human hands but by other factors like humidity, radiation and magnetic fields that can affect their storage and alter or totally damage their content. The setting up of reasonable e-data retention and destruction policies and their careful implementation can avert potential legal liabilities over e-data. But the ignorance of or ignoring these can prove damning for a government agency.

In a US case that proved a watershed for government corporate e-data accountability, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was held liable by the court for contumacious conduct related to its destruction of e-data that could have proved relevant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request lodged by the Landmark Legal Foundation (Foundation).

The Foundation’s request had to do with the identification of all the rules or regulations that EPA had promulgated and which actual public notice have not yet been given but are planned to be given within the span of several months (September 7, 2000 to January 20, 2001) prior to the change of administration.

On January 19, 2001, the parties appeared before the court to hear the Foundation’s application for a preliminary injunction to prevent the destruction of responsive materials. The court ordered “that Environmental Protection Agency and its agents and employees are enjoined from transporting, removing or in any way tampering with information potentially responsive to Landmark Legal Foundation’s September 7, 2000 (FOIA) request”. This order was clearly understood by EPA’s counsel who reviewed it and said “I can live with this order”.

In spite of this order, evidence was adduced in court that EPA violated the injunction with respect to e-data in these ways:

1. The former EPA Administrator’s hard drive was reformatted on January 19, the date the preliminary injunction issued and in violation of that injunction.

2. The former Associate Deputy Administrator’s and another senior official’s hard drives were reformatted on or around February 2, 2001.

3. As to the responsive emails that should have been preserved and produced in response of the Foundation’s request, it was established that the EPA backs up the email system to tape daily. Backup tapes were normally preserved for 90 days, and then erased and reused. A division director of the Headquarters and Desk Top Services Division of the Office of Environmental Information, testified that the practice of erasing and reusing email backup tapes continued after January 19, despite the Court’s order, and continued until late April. By the time the erasures and reformattings stopped, the earliest remaining tapes were from on or about February 2, 2001.

The court also expressed its dissatisfaction with the government lawyers of EPA who did not act speedily to address the court order. It was found out that the Office of the Government Counsel (OGC) sent an email that advised all EPA employees that they were subject of the order, on the seventh day after the court issued the order. This email which was sent to a wide distribution list, did not include the IT staff responsible for the preservation of the email backup tapes, nor was it sent to the Acting Administrator at that time.

Moreover, it was proved that the OGC sent a memorandum addressing the steps to be taken to preserve the e-data only on May 5, 2001, over three months after the court injunction was issued. It is no surprise then that the court stated that these “inaction(s) at the OGC is not the performance of duty the Court would expect from career government lawyers, and prevents a finding that all reasonable steps were taken to comply with the January 19 order”.

All of these caused the court to award the Foundation attorneys’ fees and costs due to the contumacious acts of EPA.

This case was decided in 2003 but it is instructive and relevant to the e-data issues that government agencies in the Philippines are confronting or will confront in the very near future. The current rules on electronic evidence do not specifically provide for relief against the spoliator, in case of destruction of e-data. It is hoped that the issues presented in this case can be addressed by the Philippine Supreme Court and other relevant agencies. It is also hoped that not only attorneys but judges as well, will be educated and trained in e-data issues.

Copyright by Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal. The views expressed are my own and do not constitute legal advice. All Rights Reserved.

Law Bytes: TheCyberLawyer Issue 4: Can you Fight City Hall? The Liability of a City to Preserve E-Data, by Atty Noel Guivani Ramiscal, PhD Law

A real life story unfolded in the City of Monte Sereno, California, that contained a strange admixture of elements culled from Dickens, Hawthorne and Gibson, and spiced up by the Internet.

 

Joseph and Darla Padgett sued the City for violation of civil rights, violation of the California Civil Code, abuse of process, civil extortion, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. This arose from an anonymous threatening letter that the Padgetts claimed was sent by certain employees of City Hall to them in 2004. Enclosed with the letter was a 1994 newspaper article which reported Mr. Padgett’s conviction of a misdemeanor crime. This article was downloaded from the Internet. A City employee by the name of Lisa Rice admitted in 2005, to be the author and sender of the threatening letter from her workstation at City Hall. She stated that she wrote the letter on her own volition and she did not tell anyone about it. According to the Padgetts, Rice wrote the letter at the direction of other City employees, including City Manager Brian Loventhal.

 

As the drama unfolded, the Padgetts sought to discover the connection between Rice and Loventhal relative to the letter. They applied for a Motion to Compel inspection of the City’s computers, printers, and backup tapes. At first, their motion was denied by Judge Seeborg on the ground that the burden and expense of the discovery to the City outweighed the potential benefit of the inspection. The Padgetts moved for a reconsideration. The Court conducted a hearing on April 14, 2006 and it specifically ordered the City’s counsel to “continue to preserve everything.” Counsel for the City asked the Court to permit that the computers in question remain in use and represented that “nothing is being deleted”. On December 28, 2006, the Court ordered the inspection of certain computer workstations, hard drives, and laptop computers used by City employees Rice, Loventhal and another employee.

 

In January of this year, the Padgetts learned that the City had destroyed Loventhal’s laptop hard drive in August 2006. According to the City, one of its employees, a Ms L’Heureux, with no connection to the current litigation serviced Loventhal’s laptop after it had “crashed”. Acting under the false impression that the case against the City by the Padgetts was already settled, she then discarded the defective hard drive. The Padgetts then filed a motion for terminating sanctions, monetary sanctions, and entry of default judgment (terminating motion) against the City for its bad faith in misrepresenting the existence and preservation of the relevant e-data in its custody that are crucial to the case.

 

In considering the Padgett’s motion, the court noted that as early as March 26, 2006, the defendant City and Loventhal had notice that the Padgetts intended to examine Loventhal’s laptop hard drive. When the court ordered the City to “preserve everything” that included Loventhal’s laptop hard drive. Accordingly, the court found that the City and Loventhal have failed to take adequate precautions to preserve Loventhal’s computer equipment for forensic analysis. This disregard, “(w)hether characterized as willful or negligent…constitutes the kind of “fault” sufficient to warrant sanctions, including dismissal, under the Court’s inherent powers”. However, the court did not grant the entry of judgment of default against the City because it reserved its right to examine further the question of damage to the Padgett’s claim once the full discovery process has been completed. In this connection, the court noted that upon the hearing of the terminating motion, the City stated that the discarded hard drive had suddenly appeared “without explanation”. For now, the court ruled that the Padgetts are entitled to monetary sanctions due to the delays they suffered, the costs of filing the terminating motion and readying their computer expert.

 

The court ruled that the defendant City shall reimburse the Padgetts all the monetary costs associated to the filing of their terminating motion and any subsequent supplement briefings. The costs shall cover, but is not limited to, the Padgetts’ costs for travel to the hearing and time spent researching and gathering evidence to present their terminating motion. The City is liable to pay for the cost of the Padgetts’ computer expert, up to the date of the court’s decision on the terminating motion, to cover “any dislocation of his service”. The City finally is liable to bear the cost of the Special Master that the Court has already appointed to manage the e-discovery process.

 

This case is proof that if the judges who dispense justice are trained to handle e-discovery issues correctly and fairly, then e-discovery is a leveling process. It would not matter if the opposition is moneyed or powerful like City Hall. Ordinary citizens whose rights have been trampled upon, in a manner that implicates e-data or their storage devices, can seek relief through measures, some of which have no counterpart in the redress of grievances that involve paper data.

 

Copyright by Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal. The views expressed are my own and do not constitute legal advice. All Rights Reserved.

Law Bytes: TheCyberLawyer Issue 6: Purging of (Im)pureTunes: E-Data and Jurisdiction in Intellectual Property Rights Dispute, By Atty Noel G. Ramiscal (PhD Law)

E-data is shaping to be a major means by which intellectual property rights (IPR) disputes in the digitized age are settled or resolved. In the United States, cases abound that show e-data to be the lynchpin in deciding multimillion IPR controversies.

At this stage, the relevance of e-data in the Philippine IPR situation is not apparently known or even understood by the relevant government officials and private stakeholders. The Philippine Intellectual Property Office released an Intellectual Property Strategic Plan for 2007-2009. The Plan did not note in any of its internal and external challenges, or in any of its goals, the importance of educating its officials, employees and its clients of the legal and technological consequences of e-data in the whole IPR system, in general, and in securing and defending or proving IPR claims in particular.

Since 1999, I have been studying and writing about e-data and its IPR implications. I took the IPR course stream offered by the University of Queensland for my Master of Laws degree, where I encountered e-data in various IPR contexts. For my PhD studies, I explored the multidisciplinary connections between e-data, IPR, human rights and higher online learning. It was a challenging task that has brought so many rewards in terms of insights that I would never have appreciated or unearthed had I chosen to do a straightforward and simple PhD thesis. I am a product of government scholarships that have encouraged its recipients to give something back to the public. As part of my public service, I will endeavor to present the nexus between e-data and IPR in this, and other issues of “TheCyberLawyer” series.

In this issue, I chose to highlight the IPR dispute between several recording companies (represented by Arista), and a Spanish company, Sakfield Holding Co., Inc., (Sakfield) that ran a website (www.puretunes.com) which allegedly allows internet users to download copyrighted music without any requisite authority. (Arista et al v Sakfield et al, 314 F. Supp. 2d 27).

To overcome the issue of jurisdiction, Arista alleged and sought to prove that Sakfield has derived profits from the illegal music downloading of residents who live in the District of Columbia, Washington who used the puretunes site and software. Sakfield in turn denied this, claiming that it has no record or information of profits derived from residents in this area and moved to dismiss the infringement suit for lack of jurisdiction.

The court ordered a jurisdictional discovery to find out if Sakfield is actually doing business in the District of Columbia.

Even if Sakfield operates in Madrid, Spain, it has a reasonable expectation of being haled into court in the District of Columbia because of the nature of its business. To download a music file, a potential puretunes client had to subscribe to Sakfield’s service, give personal information, agree to a license agreement, download and install the proprietary puretunes software, which can then be used to download infringing music files from the website. Credit cards are used by puretunes customers if they desire to download music beyond the free first 25 songs. But these were not sufficient to establish Sakfield’s actual business in the District of Columbia.

What proved to be the crucial factor in making the court decide that Sakfield is under its jurisdiction is e-data or the substantial lack of it. Under the jurisdictional discovery order, Sakfield was compelled to produce the computer servers, which hosted the puretunes website together with the music database and users’ records, to enable the plaintiffs to discover evidence that are relevant to the case. These were held by a third party service provider. However, when the plaintiffs’ cyberforensic expert examined the servers, he found that a program designed to erase electronically stored information had been run more than 50 times from a remote location in an effort to erase all electronic information on the servers. This caused the destruction of more than a majority of the e-data contained in the servers. The wiping of the e-data happened after Sakfield was informed by its Internet Service Provider that Arista et al, complained about music copyright infringement. The defense of Sakfield that it destroyed most of the e-data on the servers to prevent further infringement was according to the court, “one of the most ludicrous arguments ever visited upon this Court in written form”.

Despite the attempted total destruction of e-data, the plaintiffs’ cyberforensic expert recovered a small amount of information from the computer servers which showed partial lists of Puretunes users and a partial record of music file downloads. The cyberforensic expert was able to extrapolate data which showed that 241 puretunes users were located in the District of Columbia, and these users downloaded 20,000 music files from puretunes. The extrapolation process made by the cyberforensic expert cannot be seriously discredited by Sakfield. Were it not for the wiping program utilized by Sakfield, the cyberforensic expert would not have had to resort to such method. Further, the destruction of evidence raises the presumption that disclosure of the spoliated e-data would be incriminating.

Entities who use the web to transact their business should take into account the court’s admonition that the words “internet transaction” is not some mantra nor “some mystical incantation capable of warding off the jurisdiction of courts built from bricks and mortar”.

Copyright by Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal. The views expressed are my own and do not constitute legal advice. All Rights Reserved.

Law Bytes: TheCyberLawyer Issue 7, Special Report: The Government Chief Information Officers’ Forum on Egovernance Center of Excellence

Yesterday (July 26, 2007) was an extra special day for me. The government Chief Information Officers Forum (CIOF) held their second general membership meeting at Dusit Hotel with the focus on the eGovernance Center of Excellence (eGov CoE), something that is closely related to my advocacy on good e-governance relative to electronic data. For those who may not be aware, the CIOF was legally established eleven years ago as an organization that embodies the interests and concerns of senior ICT officials in the Philippine government (with a grade of at least 24, as emphasized by its current president, Lilia Guillermo). It envisioned itself to be the partner of government in the strategic utilization of ICT for greater accountability and improved public service, particularly in information intensive government agencies and critical government operations that employ ICT tools. The CIO Forum engages in advocacy work that is geared towards the formulation of relevant ICT policies and promotion of excellence in the management of information in government.

 

 

While it caters to the government sector, private firms and NGOs can join as institutional members. As a private practitioner, I am not a member of any of these groups. The CIOF’s Director of Membership, Josefa Vidal, invited me as her special guest. Jo, as she prefers to be called, is the Deputy Director of the Philippine National Police for ICT Matters and is one of the most insightful and candid persons I met in the ICT sector. Through her kindness, I was privileged to be part of this important event.

 

 

The eGov CoE is actually a partnership between the government’s Center for Information Communication Technology (CICT) and members from the ICT industry, namely Oracle, HP, Intel, RedHat (Linux) and ePLDT. Representatives from some of these organizations presented several of the core functions and value that their business technologies and solutions offer, to help the Philippine government’s drive to be enabled and empowered in its in various key and critical operations. Mr. Robin Fong and Ms. Luz Guillermo of Oracle discussed the “Oracle Government Treasury Solution” and the “Oracle Public Sector Budgeting Solution” respectively, which are end to end solutions that are geared to assist government agencies in their fiscal planning, expenditures and accounting tasks, with the end in view of increasing transparency and highlighting the responsibility and accountability of the officials involved in the performance of these functions. Mr. Gerry Lim of Hewlett Packard offered an interesting overview of HP’s solution to the issue of e-Procurement. I just wished that there was a representative from Phil-GEPS who could have initiated a dialogue with Mr. Lim on the issues of e-procurement and the relevance of HP’s products in resolving the glitches that sometimes happen in the Phil-GEPS system. ePLDT’s Andrew Smith showed why an all IP contact center with unified multi-media and multi-channel capabilities can serve clients better at less costs than traditional IP centers which have these capabilities integrated to their closed platforms. I enjoyed the IVVR feature which I think is way cool. Special thanks to ePLDT for offering free international and local calls on their booth.

 

 

However, the most important talk was given by CICT Commissioner and OIC Timoteo Diaz de Rivera whose “Situationer on the Center of Excellence” highlighted the fact that while important changes have been made, the Philippine government needs to make great strides and changes in its ICT policies, implementation and management of e-data in order to catch up with its neighbors. I am glad that Commissioner Diaz de Rivera stated that CICT is getting local governments involved, like those in Cebu. I do believe that local governments can serve as the all important catalysts of ICT changes in the country. They should be equipped not only with the ICT tools and training but also with the understanding of the importance of e-data as a mechanism for checking and enforcing government responsibility (Please read my article).

 

 

In the second half of the meeting, Directors Vidal and Hector John Manaligod of the University of the Philippines, inducted the members of CIOF. The CIOF’s vivacious President Lilia Guillermo closed the event with her report of the significant accomplishments of the CIOF.

Indeed, it is the presence of forums like the CIOF which can bring and uplift the state of e-governance in the Philippines. To all the members and officers of CIOF, MABUHAY PO KAYO!

 

 

Copyright by Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal. The views expressed are my own and do not constitute legal advice. All Rights Reserved.

Law Bytes: Electronic Discovery of Truth in the Philippines

The CyberLawyer Issue # 8

by Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal

July 31 and August 1, 2007 were important days in the annals of the burgeoning field of electronic discovery of e-data in the Philippines. The organizer of the event, Citizens Truth Verifier Academy Inc. (CTVAI), is a training academy for private detectives, and is affiliated with the Truth Verifier System Inc. (TVSI), a multi-awarded detective agency with branches in the Philippines and the United States. TVSI has over forty years of experience and has been recognized by private and government agencies in the Philippines for its exemplary services, through its many awards and citations.

CTVAI held a seminar devoted exclusively to the many aspects of computer crimes on July 31. This is the first of its kind with the focus on the concerns of businesses. Even the venue had an auspicious name: New Horizon Hotel. The result: a jampacked seminar where people (including foreigners) from so many different professions and companies were exposed to various facets of cybercrimes to help them protect themselves and their businesses.
The TVSI booth located in the foyer teemed with curious and genuinely interested participants who marveled at the latest electronic gadgets that TVSI uses to conduct its electronic surveillance and other cyber sleuthing activities.

Starting the seminar was the lecture on the “Nature, Elements and Extent of Computer Crimes” by Ms. Helen Macasaet of Pentathlon Systems Resources, Inc. Culling examples from movies, literature, and her actual experiences, she explicated the complex nature of computer crimes by discussing their types and she alluded to their extent by pointing out to literature that documents cases and statistics of computer crimes.

A very informative lecture was on “Electronic Monitoring” by Mr. Antonio Angeles, the Managing Director of ACA Technologies and Security Solutions. He presented the gamut of monitoring activities and technologies (e.g., KeyKatcher, KeyRaptors, pen and trap trace devices, Nokia spy phones, infinity transmitters, etc.) which are available and used in the Philippines. They show that no information, particularly e-data, is truly and absolutely immune from detection and interception.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the counterpart of the US FBI, has an established “CyberLab” in its headquarters in Taft, Manila. Its amiable “top” agent, Mr. Palmer Mallari, presented a lecture on the “Investigation of Cybercrimes”. Mr. Mallari discussed the development of the concept and prosecution of cybercrimes in the Philippines, which evolved from the “I LOVE YOU” virus that was made by a creative but misguided student. He presented the challenges and limitations faced by NBI as an agency in its efforts to address the increasing incidence of computer abuses and misuses in the country.

Rounding out the seminar was the lecture on “The Legal Significance of E-Data in Computer Crimes” given by private practitioner, Attorney Noel Ramiscal. Since 1997, Atty. Ramiscal has been writing on the legal issues that implicate e-data in various contexts. For the seminar, he discussed at length the potential sources of e-data and their legal consequences, including evidentiary considerations. He delved on the legal issues that can arise from a Supreme Court memorandum on the search and seizure of computer data in intellectual property rights proceedings. He also pointed out several gaps in the Revised Penal Code, the Rules on Electronic Evidence, the Rules on Criminal Procedure, The Anti-Wire Tapping Law, The Human Security Act of 2007 and several other laws, which can be used by computer criminals to evade or escape prosecution.

CTVAI’s August 1 afternoon seminar was on “The Truth About Lying.” Attorney Benjamin Delos Santos’ presentation on “Interview/ Interrogation Techniques” and Ms. Josefina Castillo’s “How to Tell if Someone is Lying” are valuable lectures that probe into the mind and body language of people who are lying to conceal a crime or protect a criminal. Captain Dumlao, the indefatigable founder of TVSI lectured on the benefits of taking a polygraph test (which can be the conventional type or the digital test) which includes an average confirmed validity or accuracy of 96%. TVSI is the pioneer in digital polygraph test in the Philippines. In terms of its acceptability to the court, Captain Dumlao cited several US cases that point to it as an “accurate form of circumstantial evidence.”

These two seminars offered their participants an unparalleled holistic view of the current issues, challenges, and opportunities for reform in the areas of law, law enforcement and prosecution of computer crimes and their perpetrators, that is truly needed and most welcome in the Philippines, particularly by the business sector.

Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal. The views expressed are Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s own and do not constitute legal advice. All Rights Reserved.

Law Bytes: The Cyberlawyer 2010 Series #1: Legal and IT Issues in Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage

Last February 18, 2010, Dr. Atty. gave his seminal lecture on “International

Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal prior to his lecture

Law: Legal and IT Issues on the Preservation of Digital Cultural Heritage” to lawyers at the UP Law Center, Bocobo Hall, UP Diliman. It was in the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Seminar organized by the UP Institute of Judicial Academy (IJA). The MCLE was established by the Supreme Court to make lawyers update their legal knowledge and skills so that they can be better and more effective advocates in their legal practice. Thus, it is always a privilege and an honor to be invited as a lecturer.

Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal during his lecture

Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal’s lecture tackled the concepts of “digital heritage” and their cultural importance; the international and national legal frameworks pertaining to preservation of digital cultural heritage; the scattered and sketchy attempts at preservation of some digital cultural heritage in the Philippines; and the legal hindrances to preserving digital cultural heritage, including the provisions in the Intellectual Property Code and the Online Child Pornography laws that impose conditions that make the tasks pertaining to the preservation of digital cultural heritage legally impossible.

As far as Dr. Atty. Ramiscal knows, this is the first time in the Philippines that a lecture of this nature that examined closely the interrelationship between legal and technological issues concerning the preservation of digital cultural heritage was given.

The lawyers who attended his lecture were appreciative of his efforts. Several

Backview of some lawyers who attended Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal's lecture

of them approached him to convey their gratitude and enjoyment. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal also met among others, Atty. Leo Romero, his UP Creative Writing Center Fellows batchmate, Atty. Abejo, the father of Trish Abejo from CICT, and Atty. Voltaire Veneracion, the proprietor of Big Dipper, who is also an NCCA consultant. Atty. Veneracion later told Atty. Myrna Feliciano (the Supreme Court MCLE Executive Director, and Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s former UP Law professor in Legal Bibliography) during lunch, that the lecture of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was able to explore and integrate legal and technological issues that are converging in creative industries, to which Atty. Veneracion’s business belongs.

All in all, it was a very auspicious and appropriate start of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s advocacy in 2010 for the rights of artists and creative communities whose works should comprise part of the digital heritage of humankind. Special thanks to the UP IJA Director, Atty. Rowie Daroy Morales, Atty. Mabel Perez, Atty. Falor, Raffy, Armand, Ms. Zen and everyone at IJA for everything. God Bless Us!

Law Bytes: The Cyberlawyer 2010 Series #2: Copyright Versus Creative Commons In the Age of Burning and Ripping

February 19, 2010 was another significant date for it was the first time Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal lectured to the lawyers of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), at their main office in Ortigas.

Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal prior to his lecture at SEC

This is for the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Seminar organized by the UP Institute of Judicial Academy (IJA) for SEC lawyers. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal accepted the invitation because it is such a great privilege and honor to be an MCLE lecturer, and also it is a great opportunity to promote the activities done under the National Commission on Culture and Arts’ (NCCA) International Commitment Fund for Intellectual Property Rights.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal lectured on “Copyright Versus Creative Commons In the Age of Burning and Ripping” to a very appreciative and culturally aware group of SEC lawyers almost all of whom have never heard of the Creative Commons movement. He discussed the permissive culture of appropriation and misappropriation; the theory of social interaction as pertinent to creative processes; the international and national legal and regulatory mechanisms for protecting the copyright of creators; the origin, history and licenses comprising the Creative Commons system in the Philippines; the benefits of the Creative Commons system; the disadvantages inbuilt into the Creative Commons system; and the nefarious effects the Creative Commons system can have on unsuspecting and uninformed creators, indigenous artists and creative communities. On this matter, the most pressing local issue that Dr. Atty. Ramiscal brought to the SEC lawyers’ attention was his discovery of a Philippine online portal which contains collections of music and videos of an indigenous community, the members of which were not specifically named nor their individual artistic contributions recognized.

After Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s lecture, he had discussions with several SEC

Some SEC lawyers

lawyers who approached, thanked and complimented him for his presentation. Atty. Kabatay told him about her fellowship at the Salzburg Global Conference , to which Atty. Dr. Ramiscal also belongs.  Atty. Garlitos told him about his (Atty. Garlitos’) visual artistic aspirations and desire to help artists. Attys. Morcillo and Remalante asked him about legal implications of certain matters raised during his presentation. Attys. Macapagal and Banggui told him about their selfless personal legal advocacies for the Dumagats. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal asked them to join forces with NCCA. They invited him to attend the gathering of nine tribes in Antipolo by April and he accepted.

The information Dr. Atty. Ramiscal gathered from these SEC lawyers was valuable and would not have been transmitted to him if he did not accept the UP IJA invitation. Kudos to Director of IJA, Atty. Rowie Daroy Morales, the very accommodating Ms. Mabel Perez

Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal with Ms. Mabel Perez

who made sure I was comfortable, Ms. Zen and all the IJA staff who were there at SEC, thank you for everything! God Bless Us!

Law Bytes: The Cyberlawyer Series 2010 #4: The AFP Summit On Enhancing Cyber Security: National Cyber Defense Capability Development Conference

The Armed Forces of the Philippines in cooperation with the Department of National Defense, the Commission on Information Communication Technology (CICT), National Cyber Security Office, Philippine Honeynet, National Security Council (NSC) and the Philippine Computer Society, presented an impressive two day (March 10 and 11, 2010) Summit on Cybersecurity which gathered top experts from related fields of defense, cyberforensics, information technology, security, telecommunications, public utilities, e-commerce and law.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal at AFP Summit First Day

It kicked off with messages from AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Bangit, Hon. Milo Ibrado of NSC and Hon. Ray Anthony Roxas Chua III of CICT, read by their representatives. A representative of Hon. Timoteo Angelo Diaz de Rivera read his speech on the CICT’s E-governance policy framework. General Virtus Gil, the National Cyber Security Coordinator talked about his experiences and the challenges facing security and law enforcement officials grappling through unclear legal environments. People from Symantec (Messrs. Ken Celik and David Balamon) talked about the threats that are present in the digital environment and how their products can address or minimize these threats. Mr. Alexis Pantola from IBM showed some hacking tricks and told the audience some values of ethical hackers. Mr. Steve Cutler from Pacific Strategies and Assessments articulated some global defense trends and related the “Art of War” of Sun Tzu as an important source of strategies for cyber defense. The Secretary of National Defense, Hon. Norberto Gonzales made a special appearance and exhorted everyone to find a new paradigm for dealing with cyber security and crimes that is rooted in a First World consciousness, befitting the technical expertise of Philippine IT professionals.

The paramount theme of the second day was securing IT and telecommunications networks and risk mitigation strategies, as exemplified by the talks of  Messrs. Rodel Urani (Information Systems Security Association), Solomon Anastacio (Manila Electric Company), Angel Averia (PHCERT), Richard Stohner (Information Systems Security Society of the Philippines[ISSSP]), Dennis Omila (Globe Telecom) and Reginald Nery (KPMG). Director Ma. Lourdes Yaptinchay from the DTI’s E-commerce office unveiled a public key infrastructure and certification authority frameworks that will be implemented in the public and private sector.Mr. Amado Malacaman Jr., the Vice President of ISSSP kept everyone amused with his vision of a C-Safe Philippines.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s presentation

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal in action during the AFP Summit on Cybersecurity

on the governing laws, code of conduct and ethical practices pertaining to cybersecurity concentrated on little known and hardly explored legal implications concerning the use of encryption technology in the upcoming May 2010 electronic elections, the connection between encryption and terrorism, cyberstalking, phishing and the need to provide cyberforensic experts, creative artists and other professionals that deal with electronic data, protection from the Intellectual Property Code’s reprographic restrictions. The Intellectual Property Code’s pertinent provisions can actually hamper the prosecution of intellectual property rights infringers.

The highlight of the event was the signing of the “Conference Resolution for Joint Private-Public Sector Partnership to Boost the National Cyber Defense Capability” by people representing several stakeholders.

The signing of the Summit Resolution by representative stakeholders including Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal seated on the right.

The Conference Resolution read by Ms. Corazon Akol (President of the Philippine National IT Standards) sought among others, to implement the various components of the 2005 National Cyber Plan as well as seek sustainable funding for the Cyber Security Implementation Plan that will enable both the national government and private sectors to respond to national security threats posed through cyberspace.

The Summit was a success by all standards. Kudos to the conference organizers, sponsors and the AFP for providing the much needed funding. Special thanks to Titus Manuel, Amado Malacaman Jr., and Corazon Akol for keeping everything flowing smoothly. Special, special thanks to the CICT, Ms. Malou Santilleses, the CIO’s Josefa Vidal, the PCS officers, Mr. Nelson Celis, Mr. Armand Hernandez, the PCS staff, Jane, and the indefatigable tandem of Mr. Titus Manuel and Ms. Gigi Viduya who always come up with the goods, even at the last minute! Of course, special mention must be made of Toti Casiño, whose impassioned cyber advocacies, is a cause of inspiration. The NCCA and UPLB administrations must also be mentioned for allowing Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal to represent these institutions in the Summit.

Law Bytes: The Cyberlawyer 2010 Series # 5: Philosophy, Law, Technology and the Philippine National Philosophical Research Society

The Philippine National Philosophical Research Society (PNPRS), which is one of the most influential philosophical societies  in the Philippines, recently got revamped and made over with the election of a new set of officers comprising its Board of Governors and a new set of by-laws that conform to the laws of the Philippines, as well as recognize the social, political and technological exigencies of contemporary life and survival.

The PNPRS new by-laws make it very clear that its mission-vision as well as “(i)ts advocacy is to make philosophy an essential instrument and academic discipline in nation-building and world understanding. It recognizes loyalty to philosophy and to the nation”.

As a true philosophical society engaged in meaningful relevant philosophical researches, PNPRS is the publisher of one of the very few refereed international publications  that originates in the Philippines. This unique and multidisciplinary journal is called Filosofia [Philosophia]: International Journal of Philosophy.

In its National Assembly Convention held at the New Horizon Hotel last March 14, 2010, the members elected the following Board of Governors: Dr. Nicolito Gianan (UPLB) as the Chair, Mr. Roland Pada (UST) as Vice Chair, Dr. Leopoldo Delacruz (EAC) as Secretary, Ms. Camille Leelin Ting (ADEMU) as Auditor, Fr. Anthony Ben Ayubo (Sacred Heart Seminary) as Treasurer, Dr. Edgardo Cabural (CEU) as Public Relations Officer and Dr. Atty. Noel Ramiscal (UPLB) as Legal Officer.

From left to right: Dr. Atty. Ramiscal (Legal Officer), Mr. Pada (Vice Chair), Dr. Cabural (PRO), Dr. Delacruz (Secretary), Dr. Gianan (Chair), Ms. Ting (Auditor), and Fr. Ben Ayubo (Treasurer).

Dr. Rolando Gripaldo serves as the Executive Governor. Special mention must be made of Ms. Aleli Macatangay Caraan and Ms. Abelyn Carasig Kwe who both come from UPLB and formed part of the COMELEC.

The occasion is most auspicious because Dr. Gianan and Dr. Atty. Ramiscal both come from UPLB which just reinstated its Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy degree Program. The elections of Drs. Gianan and Ramiscal are sure to boost the morale of the Philosophy Division at the College of Arts and Sciences of UPLB.

The National Convention also showcased the philosophical ruminations of the invited lecturers. Dr. Jove Jim Aguas discussed the philosophical views of the late Pope, Karol Wojtyla on the concepts of “person”, “love” and “sex”. Dr. Rolando Gripando had everyone riveted with his thesis on “constatival logic” and its applications and implications in language and communication, not only in the content of what we say, but also in the mere act of speaking.

As part of his legal and philosophical advocacies, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal focused on discussing the nebulous concept of academic freedom of educators in this age of digitized education.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal in his lecture

After explaining the history and the inadequacies of the philosophical theories that covered this concept, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal, used the human rights approach as exemplified in the UNESCO/ILO 1997 Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel, to draw the feasible metes and bounds of this freedom of educators. Dr. Ramiscal showed through his discussion of several laws, jurisprudence and university policies how the academic freedoms of educators can be violated, in this era of e-learning.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal receiving his certificate from Dr. Gianan and Dr. Gripaldo

The PNPRS National Convention was a great success by all measures. It solidified the presence and value of “Philosophy” as the original fount of all knowledge and as an essential source for the renewal and rediscovery of humankind’s humanity. It was Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s pre-law course and he considers taking it as one of the most endearing and liberating experiences of his life. It is for this reason that Dr. Atty. Ramiscal considers the Philosophy Division in the College of Arts and Sciences as his “rightful” place in UPLB.

Law Bytes: The Cyberlawyer Series 2010 # 6: E-data in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Revisiting Salzburg Global Conference 451

In April 2008, Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal was very fortunate to have won the Freeman Foundation Fellowship  which allowed him to go to Salzburg, Austria to participate at the Salzburg Global Conference Fellowship No. 451 dubbed as “Innovation in Knowledge-based Economies: Accelerating the Benefits”. The whole Salzburg, and surrounding areas were enchanting.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal out in the Salzburg Wintry Spring

Major parts of the conference were held in Schloss Leopoldskron, the castle where the movie “The Sound of Music” was filmed. It is also the area where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal in front of Mozart's house.

The conference presentors and participants were feted to splendid surroundings and amazing bountiful food and treats.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal passing thru the streets of Salzburg

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was tasked by the conference organizers who learned about his legal advocacy regarding electronic data in different contexts to give a presentation on this during the Working Group Sessions. He did his presentation last April 16 on “E-Data legal Issues in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: A Philippine Perspective” for the Working Group 2. The audience came from the United States, Romania, China, India, Serbia, Macedonia and Kenya.

As part of his advocacy, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal dissected

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal inside Schloss Leopoldskron

several crucial legal issues on electronic data that can determine the survival of any commercial enterprise. Among these, he discussed the flaws in the Supreme Court Rules of Electronic Evidence which can make the prosecution of e-data thieves and misappropriators a frustrating or almost impossible task. He noted some points in the writ of habeas data that can be used for abuse, and the thorny issues concerning the transfer of electronic data across national boundaries. He also emphasized some points in the E-Commerce Code and the Creative Commons, and how they relate to employee bloggers who blog about company secrets illegally.

To cap it off, it was a privilege to be interviewed by the Conference Session Rapporteur, Douglas Horn, regarding my legal advocacy on e-data, intellectual property rights, human rights, and the Philippine situation in world affairs.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal during his interview

As a sign of his appreciation for being a part of this global event and exchange of ideas, he humbly gifted the Salzburg Global Conference a copy of his book of poetry that he wrote during a span of twenty years. It was written in four languages, including an indigenous language, Ybanag, which he co-wrote with his mother, Juanita Ramiscal. The Philippine National Commission on Indigenous Peoples gave them a citation for this, because there is no one who has written and published in this language for many decades, and it is also disappearing. It is uplifting to think that the Salzburg Global Conference is part of preserving in some way, knowledge of this language, through the book that it now houses in its Library.

It is with great pleasure to announce that the Salzburg Global Conference is coming to Manila this March 26-28! The details of the Conference can be found here:

http://www.salzburgglobal.org/2009/Sessions.cfm?IDSPECIAL_EVENT=2680

For those of you who desire to be part of this, it will truly be a milestone.

Lawbytes: Law and IT in Davao (Virtual Hate Mongering and E-Discovery) Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal

December 8 and 9, 2010 were significant days for the 1,000 strong members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), Davao Chapter. The members who attended the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lectures were treated to exciting updates of certain areas of law by renowned lecturers from Davao and all over the Philippines.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was fortunate enough to be invited by the IBP Davao MCLE Committee chaired by the gracious Atty. Jonathan Jocom and by the irrepressible Atty. Chin Chin Barrios Talaver. The venue which was the Pinnacle Hotel and Suites was first class and the audience of more than 300 lawyers

Some of the 300 Davao lawyers in attendance

who packed the roomy conference center was a lecturer’s dream.

Dr. Ramiscal’s task was challenging: give two lectures on developments of law on the areas of information technology and Internet innovations. He strove to rise to the occasion.

For his first lecture on the area of “International Law”, he elucidated on the proliferation of virtual hate mongering and associated crimes and situated these within the context international legal regimes as well as laws in different countries including the United States, Sweden, Germany, Israel, France, China, and the Philippines.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with IBP Davao Chair Atty. Ermac-Cabreros and Atty. Jocom

Dr. Ramiscal also pointed out that the day after his lecture, the world celebrated the sixty second anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is one of the crucial documents that can be used to combat this type of crime.

Aside from the horrific forms hate mongering have inspired and caused in several jurisdictions, including hate killing sprees in the US that have caused the deaths of Fil-Americans, Dr. Ramiscal gave certain possible legal and technological solutions to address, and if possible, to prevent these types of internet crimes from being created and inflicted on unsuspecting and vulnerable sectors of society, particularly, children and impressionable teenagers. He also cited encouraging legal developments in several countries on hate legislation that covers the protection of racial, religious, sexual and other minorities.

What made his first lecture even more interesting was his facetious revelation that he wore his cream colored Versace blazer as his replacement for “green” jokes which other lecturers have injected into their lectures.

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal in his Versace blazer

Atty. Tolentino of IBP Davao, who asked provocative questions on the genocides in Cambodia, Estonia, and even in the Philippines, complimented Dr. Ramiscal on his “sartorial elegance”. Atty. Vinluan of ACCRA, who lectured after Dr. Ramiscal, commented that Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture was a tough act to follow and jokingly said that his suit was “sartorial arrogance”.

His second lecture on “Substantive and Procedural Laws and Jurisprudence”, was centered on the electronic discovery and other legal issues concerning electronic data in civil and criminal cases. He showed the participants of the MCLE seminar how incriminating electronic data can exist and be revealed in seeming innocuous places in the computer and in electronic repositories. He shared with them certain tips and advice on electronic data that he himself uses in his prosecutorial tasks for UPLB and in his own private practice.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with Atty. Ermac Cabreros

Dr. Ramiscal took time to delineate and define IT concepts that are pertinent to electronic data and electronic discovery requests in civil, criminal and even administrative proceedings in certain jurisdictions, particularly the United States. The current Philippine Supreme Court Rules on Electronic Evidence which was last amended in 2002 are gravely deficient and contain major lapses in understanding the nature of electronic data and their role in the prosecution of legal cases.

Since Dr. Ramiscal’s second lecture was the last one in the MCLE series in IBP Davao, he wrapped it up with the reminder of the importance of understanding the basic concepts of electronic evidence to anticipate the difficulties and possible resolutions of legal questions arising from litigating electronic data.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with handsome Davao lawyers

The Christmas party that ensued after Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture showed the IBP Davao members’ strong bond and solidarity, helped on, no doubt by the good Davao food, wine, and the healthiest banter. Aside from being one of the best drivers behind the success of the IBP Davao MCLE Series, Atty. Chin Chin Barrios Talaver revealed another side of her rich self with her “todo bigay” fierce rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s anthemic “I Will Survive”, proving that lawyers can and do “ROCK”!

Atty. Chin Barrios Talaver ROCKS!

Kudos and grand thank yous must be given to the beautiful IBP Davao President, Atty. Socorro Ermac-Cabreros, the VP, Atty. Cres Dan Bangoy, the Secretary, Atty. Robert Michael Razon, Treasurer and enchanting newscaster, Atty. Antoinette Principe, Auditor, Atty. Lucilo Sarona Jr., PRO, Atty. Martin Delgra III, the immediate past IBP President, Atty. Manuel Quibod,

Dinner with the fabulous IBP Davao people!

the IBP Board of Directors: Attys. January Faye Risonar, Jesse Marvin Melodias, Jonathan Jocom, Bibiano Bustamante and the very helpful couple, Attys. Heraclio Malaki III and Karen Malaki. Atty. Karen Malaki who is now a bigshot lawyer in her hometown, met Dr. Ramiscal in 2006 when she was taking her Bar Examination. Dr. Ramiscal treated her to lunch, stating that those he treats pass the bar. And it is still true!

One of the best perks of doing a lecture tour is meeting new friends and touching base with “new once” friends. Thank you to the warm reception of Attys. Leonides Tan, Jennifer Melendez-Peñaflor, Marie Kristine Reginio, German Lyndon Omila Yap, Jose Vicente Ventosa III and Agnes Padilla. Special thank you to Atty. Teodoro Angel,

With Attys. Ted Angel, Chin Talaver and hubby and the IBP Monitors, Messrs. Michael Cawa and Jun Gonzales

a UP Law Alumni and friend who is doing very well as a prosperous Partner in his law firm. And thank you to the IBP monitors, Messrs. Jaime Gonzales Jr. and Michael Cawa.

To IBP Davao, it was a true pleasure and privilege! Thank You! God Bless Us! Mabuhay po kayong lahat!

Lawbytes: (Law and IT in Cotabato) Real and Digital Exploitation of Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

Last November 9 to 11, 2010, over seventy lawyers from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cotabato Chapter converged in the Notre Dame University Law School to attend the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) series conducted by the IBP Cotabato and the University of the Philippines Institute of Administration of Justice (UP IAJ).

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was quite privileged to be invited to give two lectures on topics that are part of his legal advocacies on information technology and culture.

Going to Cotabato was probably the greatest hurdle he had to overcome for this MCLE series since he missed the plane due to several critical factors. On his arrival, a cavalcade of soldiers in full battle regimen jogged in front of the vehicle that ferried him to his comfortable hotel. He viewed them as his welcoming committee. One of the drivers of the vehicles he rode in carried an armalite as long as the front SUV window. Knowing the cost of maintaining the peace in this area, Dr. Ramiscal is truly grateful for the security arrangements the sponsors took, and despite the personal issues he experienced, he actually enjoyed the trip.

In his first lecture on “Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy”

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal

Dr. Ramiscal focused on his advocacy for the protection of indigenous ecological knowledge and cultural heritage, including digital heritage. He laid down the important principles culled from general international laws that affect the status and plight of indigenous peoples and the national laws and administrative rules, particularly those issued by the National Commission on Indigenous peoples (NCIP). He also gave a very candid and frank assessment of the many obstacles that indigenous peoples face in protecting their persons and their knowledge.

Dr. Ramiscal cited a report released by the indigenous policy and research group, TebTebba Foundation, which sets out the illegal collusions between local officials, commercial companies and even staff from NCIP, have led to the denial to indigenous communities of their FPIC on matters that involve their ancestral domains and interests. The report specifically enumerated the abuses as “falsifying signatures and names used on manifestos of support for projects; using people’s signatures on the attendance lists of meetings to signify support for projects; use of force and bribery to secure consent from community leaders; installation of fake leaders and elders to gain consent when customary authorities were opposed to projects; exclusion of critical elements in communities from meetings to secure agreements from the rest; establishment of new indigenous organisations or duplication of existing ones to undermine the authority of opposing views” (found in Making FPIC Work: Challenges and Prospects for Indigenous Peoples, Marcus Colchester and Maurizio Farhan Ferrari, June 2007, Forest Peoples Programme, Moreton-in-Marsh, p 12).

Dr. Ramiscal also gave specific instances of cultural, scientific and economic exploitations by international organizations and specific entities, of indigenous peoples and their knowledge and heritage. This included the illegal recording (digital and otherwise), in the span of ten years done by a cultural predator, and release by a French association, of the songs of the T’boli women from Lake Sebu. The recording and release of the CD did not go through the free prior informed consent process delineated by the NCIP in its implementing rules and regulations of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Dr. Ramiscal wound up his lecture by

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal: on the perils and pleasures of being an advocate

illustrating to the audience the price one pays for being and striving to be the best legal advocate one can be. But he also gave some of the pleasures and privileges that come from doing one’s best that can only come from not being afraid to make a difference.

Thank you to the IBP Davao, Attys. Noel Ben, Zainudin S. Malang, Rasol Y. Mitmug Jr., Bai Ashrafia Aymee Alonto Biruar and Jeremiah C. Completano, as well as the superb people from UP IAJ, including, Atty. Jose Armand Arevalo, Messrs. Ariel Gabriel and Rafael Belanio, as well as the “cool” Atty. Ahmed Paglinawan. It is truly a memorable experience. All the best specially to Atty. Completano’s plan of looking out for, and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples affected by the mining industries. He told Dr. Ramiscal that Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture resonated in his consciousness and helped clarify his purpose in his own professional career. This is another tangible and invaluable perk that being an advocate brings! May Atty. Completano’s tribe increase!

Lawbytes: Internet Hate Crime (Law and IT in Cotabato)

Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture on “Internet Hate Crimes” last November 10, 2010 for the IBP Cotabato was another significant point in Dr. Ramiscal’s legal advocacies. Hatred on the internet is a big and profitable business for their purveyors. For example, there are hatesites in the US that sell webspace and services to people who rant against race, gender, religious class, etc., or worse, call for the killing or commission of crimes against people who fit the classes they hate. So Dr. Ramiscal welcomed the challenge of being the first lawyer in the MCLE Series of UP IAJ, and possibly in the Philippines, to discuss and examine this very timely subject.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal on Liberty and Tolerance

The fact that he delivered his lecture on the day after the 72nd anniversary of the “Kristellnacht” pogrom in 1938 against the Jews in Germany made it all the more solemn for him.

His lecture delineated several important matters concerning the nature of the Internet that are pertinent to pursuing hate crimes committed with the use of this medium. He gave a brief exposition of the Cybercrime Convention and the history and important provisions of the most pertinent international legal regime that addresses some of the most crucial elements of this type of crime, i.e., the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, Concerning the Criminalisation of Acts of a Racist and Xenophobic Nature Committed through Computer Systems. The Optional Protocol’s essence lies in its definition of what constitutes “racist and xenophobic material” which:

…means any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as a pretext for any of these factors.

The Optional Protocol is available for signing to the states who have already signed the Cybercrime Convention. But nations from around the world have laws dedicated to address hate crimes in any medium. Dr. Ramiscal gave several examples of laws and cases from Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Many European nations have consistently adhered to the banning of Nazi and neo-Nazi expressions and manifestations in their jurisdictions, including websites accessible in their territories. One judge even banned websites in Spain that are purveyors of hate but whose operators, maintainers and servers are outside Spain.

A very interesting country with a history of institutionalized discrimination, and a lot of hate statutes is the United States. Dr. Ramiscal recounted some of the difficulties of prosecuting people for hate crimes in the US because of the differences in state and federal laws which become pertinent when going after people who committed hate crimes in different states, and also the attitudes of prosecutors, government officials and victims themselves which made hate crime prosecution an arduous task. A promising development in US legislation was the approval and enactment last October 2009 of the Hate Crime Prevention Act, inspired by the separate grisly crimes against Matthew Shepard (a homosexual) and James Byrd Jr. (an African American) who were murdered because of sexual orientation and color, respectively. The Act extends its protected classes to include victims of hate crimes committed because of perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, and attacks against US servicemen. It also extends to attacks against transgendered persons.

Dr. Ramiscal also brought to the fore certain laws and legal developments in the Philippines that can be used to address crimes that are committed with the motivation of hate against the classes of people for example, that are mentioned the US law.

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal expounding on positive legal developments

He apprised the lawyers in attendance of the work he has done for the Commission on Information Communication and Technologies on the consolidated cybercrime bills and the cyberprivacy bills and why further research and work in these areas should be done.

Thank you to the IBP Davao and the UP IAJ, for this grand opportunity for Dr. Atty. Ramiscal to share his experience and expertise on this area!

Lawbytes: Enhancing Trial Techniques with Electronic Data (Law and IT in NCIP) Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal

The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) as an agency has in its employ many lawyers from all over the Philippines who are tasked with the multifarious functions that NCIP is entrusted with under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA). Since its lawyers need to comply with the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) requirement imposed by the Philippine Supreme Court, it tasked the UP Institute of Administration of Justice (IAJ) as the MCLE provider for its lawyers.

When Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal was invited by the UP IAJ to lecture on electronic data, which is one of his advocacies for NCIP, he received it with enthusiasm because he has had positive experiences with NCIP people in the past. When Dr. Ramiscal’s first (and sold-out) book of poetry in four languages, “Noelses” came out in 2005, it received a commendation from NCIP for the enrichment and preservation of the Ybanag language through the poetry Dr. Ramiscal co-wrote with his mother, which was one of the book’s languages. It was an opportunity to give back to NCIP through this form of service.

Dr. Ramiscal’s talk on “Enhancing Trial Techniques with the Use of Electronic Data” was something novel for the NCIP lawyers, who warmly welcomed him and his lecture.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal in his MCLE lecture for NCIP lawyers

Dr. Ramiscal underscored several important differences between physical data and electronic data and the issues concerning their preservation as well as their repositories.

Companies have different policies with respect as to how they protect electronic data, how they store it, how they use it, when and how they destroy it, when they write over it, and how they preserve metadata. Each may be designed for specific business needs and he illustrated the instances where these policies and practices can run afoul of legal and regulatory provisions. He gave specific laws and cases in several jurisdictions including the United States, Canada, Australia, North Ireland, as well as the Philippines to concretize his points.

Dr. Ramiscal shared his insights with the NCIP lawyers who numbered over 50 regarding the values and flaws in the Philippine E-Commerce Code, the Supreme Court’s Rules on Electronic Evidence and two Supreme Court Administrative issuances touching the search and seizure of electronic data in intellectual property cases and in the automated election disputes covering municipal officials.

The NCIP lawyers were an animated bunch who asked provocative questions and also shared some of their experiences in dealing with electronic data. When Dr. Ramiscal discussed the matter of cellphone cloning, several lawyers piped in with their observations. Dr. Ramiscal commended them for their attentiveness and their work ethic. Before and after his lecture, Dr. Ramiscal observed them conducting official business, even during their lunch break and merienda.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with Commissioner Felongco and an NCIP lawyer

Dr. Ramiscal was presented a certificate of appreciation by NCIP Commissioner for Mindanao, Atty. Felongco. He also met NCIP Chair, Atty. Agaton who signed the certificate.

Many thanks to the splendid UP IAJ team, Director Atty. Rowie Daroy Morales, Atty. Falor Vargas who arranged for Dr. Ramiscal’s accommodation, Ms. Teocel Apolona and Mr. Rafael Belanio who assisted him at the venue.

Lawbytes: Cryptology, the Automated Elections and Law in the Philippines (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

Dr. Ramiscal accepted the UP Institute of Administration of Justice’s (IAJ) invitation to lecture on its Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) seminary on International Law, focusing on an esoteric subject for many lawyers and laypeople alike: cryptology.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal on Cryptology

This was probably the first and only MCLE lecture in the Philippines devoted to cryptological and legal developments across several countries.

Prior to the May 10, 2010 elections, Dr. Ramiscal had been involved in advocacy work with the Philippine Computer Society (PCS) and its members, in particular, Edmundo Casiño, relative to making the processes involved in the automated elections more transparent, clearer and less subject to legal doubts and technical questions. His involvement started when he was the only lawyer invited by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to speak in its first Cybersecurity Summit last March 11, 2010, about the legal implications of electronic data, including the e-elections.

In the April 23, 2010 Automated Election System (AES) Crisis Management held by PCS at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), and in the post-election assessment last May 12, 2010, at AIM by PCS, Dr. Ramiscal was invited to both events to share his expertise on the subject of cryptology which was crucial to the safeguarding of the security and credibility of the elections.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with PCS FGD participants

His recommendations particularly on the establishment and/or confirmation of a particular encryption system that is secure for the PCOS machines, were accepted by the PCS and made part of the PCS letter to COMELEC relative to the AES.

It was during the post-election assessment that he met several advocates for honest and secure e-elections,

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the brilliant legislator, Congressman Homobono Adaza

including the brilliant legislator and former Secretary of State, Homobono Adaza.

His MCLE lecture at UP College of Law, Bocobo Hall, was attended by legal luminaries like the former Senator Joey Lina. It was truly exciting to follow after the lecture of the esteemed and venerable Atty. Alfredo Tadiar.

To start his lecture, he gave a brief summation of some of the most pressing national security concerns of many states that have risen in this century. Terrorism’s presence, that has manifested in several tragedies, including the 2005 London and Bali bombings and the September 11, 2001 attack on Manhattan’s World Trade Center and Pentagon, has moved beyond the physical to the virtual. To stem the wave of terrorism, there were reports that the governments of UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia run a vast worldwide surveillance system for political and commercial purposes. Governments have also explored ways of curtailing and/or regulating activities that can mask or hide criminal activities, but at the same time protect their own secrets. Nowehere is this more evident than in the discipline of cryptology.

Cryptology is concerned with the process of encryption and decryption of messages using cipher keys, otherwise known as cryptography; and the process of breaking the encrypted messages without knowledge of the cipher keys, which is called cryptanalysis. Current export control regulations, terrorism bills and laws and practices in states like the US, UK and Australia target and limit the rights and freedoms of individuals and organizations that use this technology. But this technology is also used by the same governments, including the Philippines, to secure sensitive, confidential, classified information and for important state activities like elections.

Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture tackled the restrictions contained in the Wassenaar Arrangement export controls for “dual use goods” that include digital encryption products. He criticqued how several governments have tried to monopolize and contain the spread of knowledge about cryptology using this Arrangement. With the advent of the Internet, the digitization and greater availability of information, and the concomitant rise of commercial transactions conducted through it, the need to protect the secrecy and integrity of personal information and the privacy of transactions have become exigent concerns. He emphasized that an encryption tool for the masses was needed, which was done when Phil Zimmermann allowed his Pretty Good Privacy software to be let loose on a Usenet bulletin board in 1991. Since then, cryptology spread like wildfire on the Internet. It has become, for many, a truly necessary web innovation and tool to secure personal and professional privacy and identity.

Dr. Ramiscal distinguished between symmetric and asymmetric encryption and why the lack of disclosure by the COMELEC on what encryption system it used, rendered the automated election results legally and technically dubious.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with PCS officials, CICT Head, Atty. Uy and Dr. Gonzales of STETVIP, after his PCS talk on cryptology

He discussed the scandal involving the absence of the digital signature requirement in the PCOS machines, the absence of a digital certification authority that will verify the digital signatures and the reasons advanced by COMELEC. He also examined some of the loopholes in the current Rules of Electronic Evidence that was amended last 2002 and why these rules are deficient in resolving election disputes involving e-results.

In the conclusion of his lecture, he gave several practical tips and advice to protect people from procuring substandard encryption products. Since automated elections are apparently here to stay, it is best to fine tune the technology and law on this area. “There is no security in obscurity,” and that is all the more true for cryptology.

Thank you to the UP IAJ, Ms. Mabel Perez, Atty. Falor Vargas and Director Atty. Rowie Daroy Morales for trusting Dr. Ramiscal with this topic. One of the benefits of doing lectures like these, is meeting people from the undergrad days like Atty. Red Peneyra who is practicing “green law” in power structures! Thank you to Senator Joey Lina for wishing Dr. Ramiscal well with “Mabuhay Ka!” And a great many thanks to the lawyers who listened attentively and asked provocative questions!

Lawbytes: The National Heritage Legal Debacle (Law and IT in Culture) Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal

November 16, 2010 was the day when Dr. Ramiscal delivered the first, and probably (still) the only Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lecture that examines in detail the “National Heritage Law”.

From all his MCLE engagements, this was one of the most challenging. Atty. Falor Vargas assigned to him the rubric of “Procedural Law” under which his lecture was classified.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal

The law was approved last March 26, 2010. The law gave a grace period of ninety days from its effectivity for the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) to be passed under the responsibility of the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA). At the time of Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture, and at the time of the writing of this blog article (January 11, 2011), no IRR was passed. In effect, there is no “procedure” to speak of, because the law relied on the IRR to give the procedural details and specific mechanisms necessary to effect its provisions.

The passage of the IRR would have been one of the crowning achievements for the outgoing NCCA Chair, the venerable and feisty Wilma Labrador. Instead it is a burden that the new (to be appointed) NCCA Chair must carry and discharge. A reliable source confirmed that the NCCA Secretariat in charge of formulating the IRR broke up the committees formed and apparently they were never able to make a cohesive set of rules as December 2010 ended. An examination of the list of consultants tasked to review the bill before it was passed into law would make those in the know not wonder why the law leaves so much to be desired.

Since the law had no effective procedures for Dr. Ramiscal to discuss, Dr. Ramiscal presented a lengthy critique of the law and examined several international conventions, laws and practices and lessons in different jurisdictions, including Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, United Kingdom, Tonga, Vanuatu, Canada, Fiji, and Palau, as well as the practices of several disciplines and associations from around the world including libraries, museums, anthropologists, ethnolinguists, and other social scientists.

From his examination of the practices and lessons from the experiences of these governments and entities, he proposed several measures that could help the government of the Philippines deal with cultural misappropriation, illegal exportation and destruction of cultural heritage, including indigenous cultural heritage.

One important aspect that the law did not even touch is the recognition and preservation of the Philippines’ digital cultural heritage! As early as February 18, 2010, Dr. Ramiscal, through the invitation of the UP IAJ, gave the first, and possibly the only MCLE Lecture in the Philippines that tackled the legal issues concerning digital heritage.

Digital heritage is more ephemeral in nature than physical heritage, Thus, they require purposeful technological preservation and legal protection which the law unfortunately, does not even provide.

Dr. Ramiscal also illustrated some of the difficulties brought about by the law that could have hampered the formulation of a cohesive IRR. The law displaced some of the important functions of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It also failed to see the connection, relevance and importance of the role of indigenous peoples in the continued preservation of existing heritage and the sustainability of the creation of new cultural heritage.

As emphasized by Dr. Atty. Ramiscal in his conclusion, the legislators and consultants who helped draft the law missed the golden opportunity to craft a truly useful, realistic, relevant law that will protect the Philippines’ real and virtual heritage.

Thank you to the UP IAJ, Director Atty. Rowie Daroy Morales, Atty. Falor Vargas, and staff Ariel Gabriel and Rafael Belanio for their continued support! Another opportunity this lecture provided is for Dr. Ramiscal to meet some of the participants, which included his valedictorian batchmate, Atty. Pia Peña Lacson,

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with fabulous lawyers including Attys. Falor Vargas, Melody Manuel and class valedictorian Pia Peña Lacson (in pink)

a Country Manager of one of the world’s largest banks, and spouse of senatorial candidate Alex Lacson. He also met the brilliant and beautiful couple, Attys. Rommel and Melody Manuel. It was a blessed event indeed!

Commercialization and Destruction of Heritage and the Digital Misappropriation of T’boli Music (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

January 24, 2011 is a momentous event for those involved in the advocacy for the protection and conservation of Philippine heritage, be it tangible or virtual.

The University of the Philippines Institute of Administration of Justice invited Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal to give a Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Prescribed lecture on the commercialization of heritage at the Jorge Bocobo Hall of the UP Law Center. It was another challenging task which Dr. Ramiscal chose to accept because it provides a great opportunity to share with fellow lawyers his advocacy for heritage rights.

The lawyers who attended the lecture series came from New York (USA), Singapore and from some far flung areas of the Philippines.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with one of the most beautiful bunch of legal advocates for culture

They were an enthused, passionate bunch who responded animatedly to Dr. Ramiscal’s colorful presentations of issues concerning the commercial and intangible impacts of the utilization and exploitation of what comprises “heritage” in our current world.

Dr. Ramiscal distinguished between several types of “heritage” and the pertinent international laws that govern them. The audience took a tour with Dr. Ramiscal to some of the World Heritage Sites that Dr. Ramiscal has visited in Greece, Turkey, Austria and the United States of America. He showed them some of the successful examples of preserving heritage sites in Egypt, Greece, Poland and Indonesia. World Heritage Sites that are threatened in the Philippines and Madagascar.

Footage of the destruction of the two Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan that were bombed by the Taliban in 2003 was shown by him. These Buddhas were the best examples of the Gandhara style and have stood for over 2000 years in the once golden Bamiyan valley. Politics, extremism and religious intolerance were the causes of their destruction.

Dr. Ramiscal also shared his advocacy for the rights of the T’boli singers from Lake Sebu whose songs, stories and slices of their everyday life were recorded and digitally misappropriated without any legal right by a French entity who did not secure the free prior informed consent of the T’bolis mandated under the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act. This French entity came out with a CD in France that won European awards in 2008, but did not give any rights to the T’bolis with respect to their own works. Dr. Ramiscal set out to correct this inequitable situation for the T’bolis with the mandate of the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA). The French entity sent a long, untrue, defamatory email against Dr. Ramiscal to political, diplomatic, and artistic circles in France and the Philippines. The email was clearly meant to cloud the issues relative to the criminal acts of this French entity who claimed to have had personal relations or dealings with many Philippine artists and entertainers. Political intrigues undermined the efforts of Dr. Ramiscal to seek royalty rights, publishing rights, and the accounting or inventory of the CD sales in favor of the T’boli artists. Worse, the T’boli women performed in France in June 2010, under the custody of the same French entity, without any legal representation and without securing the rights that Dr. Ramiscal fought to obtain for these T’boli artists! This French entity was the custodian of these women for almost a month. It is very probable that the women’s performances were filmed and as far as Dr. Ramiscal knows, there was no formal contract over the rights of these women to their recorded performances in their June 2010 French tour.

The importance of preserving digital heritage was also highlighted by Dr. Ramiscal in his presentation concerning the conservation of important digital data over a series or periods of preservation so that their accessibility will not be affected. Dr. Ramiscal emphasized that the current Intellectual Property Code has provisions concerning copyright which would make illegal the digital preservation of heritage.

The national legal framework discussed by Dr. Ramiscal is R.A. 10066 which, he pointed out is still unenforceable. Despite almost a year after the law was approved, the NCCA (being the lead agency) has yet to come up with any Implementing Rules and Regulations for this law, which all stakeholders in the Philippines’ heritage should be concerned.

The ensuing discussion proved to be productive. Atty. Paguia shared her concerns about the dismal failure of NCCA to protect the cultural heritage of the Philippines. She went so far as to say that the IRR of R.A. 10066 might never be passed and it could join the roster of “dead” laws. Atty. Kunze expressed her concerns regarding the NCCA’s monumental blunder in the T’boli affair and suggested that an international remedy might be sought. Atty. Lapus shared several valid observations including the restrictive scope of R.A. 10066 on the sale and exportation of works created by National Artists or Manglilikha ng Bayan. Atty. Gonzales of TRC asked Dr. Ramiscal to think of the possibility of becoming a legislator so he can further his work on these areas. But the most significant and perhaps “miraculous” result of this lecture is that fourteen lawyers signed a paper supporting the establishment of an association that will do advocacy work for the protection of cultural heritage.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with some of the brilliant lawyers who have committed themselves to preserve our heritage

This was the idea, and done at the urging of Atty. Deanabeth Gonzales, who said she is doing this for her children. As of today (February 21, 2011), the number of lawyers stand at 18.

Kudos to all these passionate and committed lawyers! Bravo to UP IAJ for organizing life changing lectures like this!

If you desire to join or support the association in any way (whether you are a lawyer or not), please email a statement of your intent and your contact details to Dr. Ramiscal at: thecyberlawyer@gmail.com.

Lawbytes: Indigenous Philosophy, Law, Technology, and the Quest for Self-Determination at PNPRS (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

February 26, 2011, the day after the commemoration of the EDSA Revolution, was a day when Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal delivered a lecture on Indigenous Philosophical Views and how these affect the Indigenous Peoples’ struggle to define and assert their

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal at PNPRS Jade Vine lecturing on Indigenous Peoples' Respect for Life

self-determination over their ecological knowledge and cultural heritage. This was the culmination of a research grant awarded to him by the Philippine National Philosophical Research Society (PNPRS). He chose the subject for the grant because it is one that is quite dear to him, being an indigenous person, advocate, artist, student, educator and lawyer.

In the years preceding the new millennium, it has been estimated that over twenty eight million (28,000,000) indigenous peoples have died as a result of their internecine struggle with dominant societies who sought to colonize and as a result decimate their ways of life, beliefs, heritage and in the process, their lives as well. It was a very common practice and sport, to belittle indigenous beliefs and practices and to steal their ecological and cultural secrets for the benefit of dominant societies. This is a carryover of the colonisation period when many biotic resources tilled by indigenous peoples were either treated as spoils of the occupation, secured by military strength, or were subject to outright theft. For example, Brazilian rubber plant seeds were smuggled by Henry Wickham in 1876 to Malaysia which led to the downfall of the Brazilian rubber industry. British explorers also blocked the efforts of Andean countries to prevent the export of “Cinchona,” the source of an anti-malarial compound, for the benefit of the British empire. It was, and still is, an unfortunate practice for researchers, academics, and scientists to steal the knowledge of indigenous peoples to fuel the trade in the multi-trillion dollar pharmaceutical and related industries. Consider these words from a book on medicinal plants of East Africa published in 1976:

Many of the herbal medicine men will not like this book since it may deprive them of their profession once their secrets are revealed. The majority of them were reluctant to show me the drug plants as a whole for this reason. In most cases, I was given the leaves or root of the plant already crushed or picked. But after some persuasion, I was shown the plant on the condition that I would not reveal it to anyone else.

The book’s author appeared to be soliciting the reader’s sympathy and admiration for stealing the secrets of the indigenous healers and at the same time brazenly bragging how he fooled these healers “after some persuasion”. Of course, his efforts were rewarded with copyright and royalties from a bestselling book, while the healers whose secrets he took got no recognition and were never heard from again.

It was only in the past century that indigenous peoples have garnered some form of recognition for their rights based on their belief systems. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal discussed several indigenous views on their relationship with the land which they view as their Mother, and how the ethic for respect for life permeates all their interactions with the world around them. For instance, the Wintu hunter meticulously hews his arrow and takes care in killing a deer cleanly, so the animal would not suffer unnecessarily. He honors the deer by using “every part of it, hoofs and marrow and hide and sinew and flex. Waste is abhorrent to him, not because he believes in the intrinsic value of thrift but because the deer had (willingly) died for him.” These practices also have positive effects on the well-being of the community. “(T)he old Inuit rule of letting a polar bear caught in the winter time lie for 4-5 days, helped them to avoid trichinosis.” These customs that inform their ways and means of hunting have served to protect them and conserve the environment in which they thrive.

Indigenous epistemology is suffused with concepts that are “culturally and spiritually based… in which indigenous people relate to their ecosystem.” Data is gathered by generations of resource users and the knowledge is transmitted through oral tradition. Interconnectedness of beings and the elements are recognized and emphasized. The experiential basis of this knowledge permits a “‘science’ that is negotiated in the same way that people negotiate social relations with one another.” This knowledge is utilized to seek, reap, store and sustain natural resources needed for necessities like shelter, food and clothing and also to recognize, prevent or evade personal and communal perils. What emerges is an understanding of what the Ojibway would call “minobimatsiiwin” or the “good life.” Termed as “traditional,” this knowledge is not static and rigid. Much of this knowledge is actually quite new, but it has a social meaning, and legal character, entirely unlike the knowledge indigenous peoples acquire from settlers and industrialized societies.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal painstakingly pointed out that Indigenous knowledge deserves as much respect and recognition as the western “scientific” way of viewing things. Rather than being contrary, both types of knowledge and science are valid ways of knowing the world, and could in fact be complementary. Neither one should be considered as inferior or superior to the other.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal also discussed the limitations of current intellectual property rights, like copyright, patents, appellations of origin and trade secrets, in the protection of indigenous ecological knowledge and cultural heritage. He also zoomed in on the Plant Breeder’s Rights which arose from the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. The Philippines has passed a law called the “Philippine Plant Variety Protection Act of 2002” (R. A. 9168) which implemented some of the most detrimental provisions of this

Some members of the audience who attended Dr. Atty. Ramiscal's lecture

Convention to our farmers. He illustrated how some of these provisions actually violate indigenous views and practices. He also discussed how the patented terminator and zombie technologies on seeds can create a system where the one who owns the technologies can dictate or enslave those who rely on the seeds for their produce.

In the last sections of his lecture, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal discussed the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of the Philippines and how the legal mechanism of “free prior informed consent” (FPIC) can be used as an important means of securing to the indigenous peoples their legal and cultural rights as well as their equitable and fair benefit sharing from the knowledge and heritage that they possess which are utilized by dominant societies and multinational companies. He noted the inadequacies and some of the shortcomings of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA) in protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.

In the end, it would have to be the indigenous peoples who must determine their future and create their destinies. They cannot expect the Philippine government, through its agencies, to give them, what it cannot appear to appreciate. Respect for indigenous ways and heritage is essentially derived from the respect indigenes have for their beliefs and their ways of life. They must continue evolving and protecting their psyche, their cultural and ecological knowledge, by participating in political processes, not for the purpose of assimilating their heritage into the dominant cultures, but by knowing and using the rules of these processes for their own benefit and self-determination.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal trusts that the indigenous peoples in the Philippines would be empowered by their own efforts to such an extent that they can define the terms of engagement for the securing of their FPIC and not rely on any government agency or outside entity to dictate and corrupt the process.

Thank you to the PNPRS,

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal receiving his grant certificate from PNPRS officers

its visionary Executive Director, Dr. Rolando Gripaldo, its indefatigable President, Dr. Nicolito Gianan, and all its other officers, including Mr. Rolando Pada, Ms. Wilhelm Julian, Dr. Ed Cabural, and special thanks to its Auditor, and the designated Reactor, Ms. Camille Ting, who provided some significant comments. Warm shout outs to the 65 people or so who attended and participated in the lecture, including some of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s students, who he challenged to be advocates in their own ways for the rights of indigenous peoples.

Law and IT in BSP: On Cybercrimes and Cyberpredators (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

March 4, 2011 was the first foray of Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal into the enclaves of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in a long time. He was invited to lecture at the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) series by the UP Institute of Administration of Justice (IAJ) for the BSP lawyers on the topic of cybercrimes. He was a frequent visitor of BSP (a lifetime ago) when he was still a Tax Senior at Ernst & Young LLP (when Punongbayan & Araullo was still the Philippine affiliate), especially in their tariff and policy divisions. He was met by the always cordial and excellent UP IAJ staff, Mabel Perez, Zenaida Antonio and Rafael Belanio. The lecture was held at one of the posh halls in the BSP’s classy Executive Room, which was decorated with paintings from artists like Joya.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal in front of a Joya

Needless to say, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was in his element.

Prior to his lecture, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal had a short dialogue with Atty. John Ivan Uy, the current Honorable Commissioner of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT). Commissioner Uy briefed him on CICT developments including the push for the passage of a cybercrime bill being made by several legislators including Senator Angara. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal told Commissioner Uy about the critique he did for the consolidated cybercrime bills which were the subject of a previous comment by the European Commission and his work for the Technical Working group on the shelved cyberprivacy bills that was headed by Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal expressed his willingness to work with CICT.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal apprised the audience comprising of over fifty lawyers of the international legal framework on cybercrimes and discussed some of the means of committing these crimes. He delved on the criminal elements of the offenses defined under the Cybercrime Convention and the Optional Protocol on Internet hate crimes. Several international incidents, their recent developments, and their legal complications, including Wikileaks and Julian Assange, were brought to the participants’ attention. Technologies like the Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected From Emanating Spurious Transmissions and their relevance to the detection of cybercrimes were dealt with.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal lecturing before the BSP lawyers

The question of jurisdiction, which has proved a problematic issue in terms of prosecuting criminals who are outside the jurisdiction of the states where the crimes were committed or consummated, was tackled with Dr. Atty. Ramiscal discussing jurisdictional principles laid down in the Cybercrime convention, including the allowance given to the States to decide amongst themselves the proper venue or venues for prosecution.

The various ways the Internet has been used by criminals to perpetrate child pornography, copyright infringement and infringement of related rights like the digital misappropriation of the rights of indigenous peoples over their cultural expressions and knowledge, bogus virtual states, digital espionage, cyber murders, online identity theft, cyberstalking and other virtual forms of invading one’s privacy were expounded upon by Dr. Atty. Ramiscal, replete with tragic cases and the laws that arose in different jurisdictions due to these case. Furthermore, he also discussed pertinent Philippine laws that can be applied should some of these cases happen in the Philippines.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal emphasizing a point on the theater screen

Although the Philippines does not have any cybercrime law at the moment, some of the laws that it has which can be applied to certain forms of cybercrimes might be a bit extreme, and can lead to criminalization of lawful activity. He discussed some provisions of the Philippine Intellectual Property Code and the Online Child Pornography Law as examples.

One of the best things of doing these lectures is the opportunity to meet interesting lawyers who are movers and shakers in the finance and banking industries, like Atty. Sandejas, an expert in Anti-Money Laundering Law and mother to an award winning Indie filmmaker!

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the elegant and fellow MCLE Lecturer Atty. Celia Sandejas

It is such a pleasure to see schoolmate and CPA Lawyer Sally Quirino obviously doing very well at the BSP Office of Special Investigation! Special thanks to Atty. Aquino, the debonair gentleman of BSP, and Atty. Pineda, a charming lady, who were such good sports during the “audience participation” portion of the seminar! Dr. Atty. Ramiscal is quite gratified at the positive reactions of the BSP lawyers to his advocacy. To them, kudos for helping steer our country to the right path of prosperity!

Law and IT in UPLB: Digital Property Rights, E-Commerce, and Legal Issues on E-Data and E-Repositories (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

As current Program Development Associate of the UPLB Information Technology Center (ITC), one of the tasks assigned to Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal, by the brilliant UPLB ITC Director Shirley Chavez, is the giving of seminars to the UPLB constituency regarding the legalities of internet access, technologies, privacy and security in a networked environment.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal lecturing at the UPLB ITC seminar

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was more than happy to oblige to give a lecture on “Legal Issues on E-Data and E-Repositories” for over forty UPLB academic members and administrators last March 10, 2011 at the Samonte Hall, Old Administration Building. A good summation of what transpired during that lecture can be found at this site:

https://itc.uplb.edu.ph/index.php/component/content/article/40-articles/155-ramiscal-talks-about-legal-issues-on-electronic-data

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal desires to give special recognition to Prof. Shirley Chavez for spearheading the interconnection of the whole UPLB community. She has faced tremendous challenges and pressures but she has not balked and has continued her admirable work with determination and vision. Supporting her are the great IT specialists and technical staff of the ITC whose command of their craft, enthusiasm and energy are truly the oil to the wheels of Prof. Chavez’s program.

By some wonderful confluence of events, Prof. Dan Mercado of the UPLB Institute of Computer Science, who is another Program Development Associate of UPLB ITC met Dr. Atty. Ramiscal for the first time last February and invited the latter to give a lecture on “Digital Property Rights and Legal Aspects of Electronic Commerce” for his graduate students of the Master of Information Technology degree program of UPLB.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the visionary Prof. Mercado

This was the first time Dr. Atty. Ramiscal was given the opportunity to share his knowledge of IT and law with UPLB students so he agreed. On the sultry afternoon of March 12, 2011, at the Physical Sciences Building, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal met a lively bunch of thirty IT professionals, who in their own fashion, are wiring the nation for greater connectivity and prosperity.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal shared with the audience some of the important concepts and principles that define the digital property rights of netizens in e-commerce transactions. He gave a brief history of the UNCITRAL Model Law of E-Commerce and related this law to the current E-Commerce Code of the Philippines. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal discussed the focal points of digital commercial transactions such as the evidentiary nature of electronic data messages, electronic documents, electronic signatures, the validity of online contracts, click and wrap agreements, the time of dispatch and time of receipt of electronic contracts, and safety harbors for ISPs. In terms of protecting the various stages of e-commerce and the rights of the parties involved in these transactions, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal defined what is “lawful access” under the Philippine E-Commerce Code and proceeded to give examples of activities and transactions that violate this concept like illegally hacking or cracking into a computer system/server or information and communication system to corrupt, alter, steal, or destroy using a computer or other similar information and communication devices, without the knowledge and consent of the owner of the computer or information and communications system. The introduction of computer viruses and malware which result in the corruption, destruction, alteration, theft or loss of electronic data messages was discussed as well as the digital piracy of copyrighted programs and content in the context of legal cases and controversies from several jurisdictions.

The students were treated to Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s sharing of his own experiences in dealing with cyberpredators and his analyses of current Philippine laws that have several gaps in protecting the rights of law abiding netizens. He showed how certain bills on cybercrimes and digital privacy can harm the lawful interests of third parties and how some of the current laws would criminalize the activities of information professionals like librarians, digital archivists and even cyberforensic experts. But he also emphasized that legislation is truly needed to combat certain criminal acts that can lead to grave harm to the victims, like cyber bullying and cyberstalking.

Thank you to these young IT professionals for their warm appreciation of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s lecture.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the young IT professionals

They were an intelligent and inquisitive audience. Under the tutelage of their visionary teacher Prof. Mercado, it is no surprise that they occupy or will occupy responsible helms of leadership in the Philippine IT industry. Thank you to Prof. Mercado for giving this opportunity to Dr. Atty. Ramiscal and to Prof. Shirley Chavez who graced the lecture with her beautiful presence.

Lawbytes: Commercial and Legal Implications of Physical and Virtual Identity Theft (Copyright by Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal)

When Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal was assigned to deliver an MCLE Prescribed lecture for lawyers by the UP Institute of Administration of Justice (IAJ) last March 22, 2011, on the “Commercial and Legal Implications of Identity Theft”, he took it as another opportunity to broaden his advocacy on electronic data pertaining to personal identifying information and show his audience how this type of information can be stolen, not only physically but virtually.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal began by asking his audience their concepts of personal identity and how much they value or do not value the information that apparently makes up the identity that the world knows about them.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with some wonderful lawyers

He then gave some well-known identity thieves throughout history and ended with a manifesto written by a contemporary hacker which helped explain some of the motivations for identity thieving. Lest, anyone condone the acts of these thieves, the gravity of identity theft can be ascertained from the disclosures of millions of identity breaches by multinational corporations and even governments. In 2008, Time Magazine stated that one hundred sixty two million personal data records of Americans were affected in security breaches reported by over three hundred organizations in 2007. This is staggering considering that the US population during that time was just over three hundred thirty million. So over one half of the American populace had their identities compromised or worse, sold, or subjected to fraud. In London, about the same time, the identities of twenty five million Britons, which comprised forty percent of the total UK populace, were breached because there was a failure by the government agents in following the protocol for transferring the electronic data relative to children’s benefits. These data, as admitted by the British government not only included the personal identifying information of children below sixteen but also the data of their parents.

In his lecture, Dr. Atty. Ramiscal analyzed common types of identity fraud including documents and benefits fraud. Criminal identity theft, tax ID scams, as well as medical identity fraud and some of their repercussions on victims from different jurisdictions were expounded. Billions of dollars are lost every year worldwide due to identity theft and it has been estimated that each victim spends about an average of four years sorting out the havoc on their credit wrought by the perpetrator. Some victims who were subjected to criminal identity theft were falsely imprisoned. A few of those subjected to medical identity fraud literally had their limbs or lives taken because of the theft of their personal information.

One novel aspect of Dr. Atty. Ramiscal’s lecture is his discussion of the digital means to steal identities without the victim not being aware that his or her identity had already been duplicated, hacked or changed by ruthless thieves. Some of the techniques he explained at some length included war driving, pharming, introduction of malware, spyware, keyloggers. Breaches of Bluetooth and RFID technologies, as well as the scourge of zombie computers were illustrated by Dr. Atty. Ramiscal. As is his practice, he gave the lawyers participants some technical tips against falling prey to these virtual methods of stealing personal information.

Finally, the international framework and laws from other states, as well as applicable Philippine laws were emphasized by Dr. Atty. Ramiscal, in order for the participants to be apprised of what they can use as legal remedies in their battle to secure and protect theirs and their clients’ e-data and privacy.

Kudos to the UP IAJ, its Director, Atty. Rowie Daroy Morales, Atty. Falor Vargas, and all the gracious staff, for trusting Dr. Atty. Ramiscal, with such an important topic. Special thanks to the brilliant, beautiful and always gracious Atty. Katrina Legarda.

Dr. Atty. Ramiscal with the brilliant and beautiful Atty. Katrina Legarda

Congratulations to all the lawyers who gave Dr. Atty. Ramiscal their undivided attention during the three hour lecture! Especial congratulations to the 85 year old lawyer who is still practicing in Bulacan for completing the lecture and apparently enjoying it! He truly serves as an inspiration to Dr. Atty. Ramiscal.

Lawbytes: Of Infrastructures, the FEF and the CICT Abolition

The Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) which is a non-government organization headed by the indefatigable IT entrepreneur, Calixto Chikiamco, is devoted to “advancing the cause of economic and political liberty, good governance, secure and well-defined property rights, and market oriented reforms”. To establish and further its vision and philosophy of balancing economic growth with the political freedoms of the citizenry, it has a lecture series where the movers and shakers of various sectors are invited to give talks on important developments and projects that have great impacts on both civic and economic lives of the Philippine public.

It was a great honor for Dr. Atty. Ramiscal to be invited by FEF’s President, Mr. Chikiamco, as the latter’s guest on June 29, 2011 at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club’s Fairways Room, to witness the eye opening lecture of current Department of Public Waterways and Highways (DPWH) Secretary, Rogelio Singson. Secretary Singson presented the DPWH National Infrastructure Plan to the crowd consisting of economic and legal luminaries including Mahar Mangahas, Gary Teves, Raul Fabella and Atty. Raphael Perpetuo “Popo” Lotilla (the former Legal Ethics teacher of Dr. Ramiscal).

Secretary Singson talked about his campaign of stemming or even preventing the commission of corrupt practices within and without the DPWH. One of the more enlightening things he divulged is the practice of politicians who try to secure infrastructure contracts for Php 50,000,000.00 or less so that the projects will only be approved by low ranking government officials and there are practically no transparency and accountability measures that act as checks and balances against the misuse and misappropriation of the public funds used for the construction of public infrastructures subject of these contracts. Consequently, the Philippine public ends up with deficient and even unsafe public roads and highways.

Secretary Singson's talk at FEF Wack Wack

Secretary Singson’s lecture made it very clear the important role that information communications technologies (ICT) play in the advancement and safety of public infrastructures. The DPWH is supposedly the most advanced government agency in the use of ICTs. He regaled the audience with his account that the agency’s electronic mapping of the streets and roads of the Philippines had become so efficient that he can download to his iPad specific street locations and their road status (e.g., finished, unfinished, unsafe) and show contractors and politicians who are lobbying for the re-construction or the construction of the same roads, if these roads truly need to be repaired or touched. The electronic mapping therefore reduces the chance for corruption. Another significant thing that he shared with the audience is that the DPWH had actually received funding from ADB and some other organizations to implement an electronic monitoring system for the safety of Philippine roads, and that is the iRAP. Lastly, Secretary Singson said that with the National Infrastructure Plan in place, the DPWH had actually realized savings of more than Php 2,500,000,000.00.

The lecture of Secretary Singson came at a time when the Philippine government’s vision for an ICT empowered Philippines has been placed in grave doubt.

The Commission on Information Communications and Technology (CICT) was abolished by Executive Order No. 47 and its functions are now relegated to an office unit at the Department of Science and Technology.

On the same day that Secretary Singson delivered his FEF lecture, the CICT rendered its “swan song” which was the unveiling of the Philippine Development Strategy (PDS) that contained programs geared for the digital advancement of the Philippine people over the next few years. It is unclear what will happen to the PDS now. There is a move by certain organizations and stakeholders of asking for the reinstatement of the CICT. For more information on this matter, please look at:

http://restorecict.blogspot.com/

With the convergence of government programs and initiatives from the private sector utilizing more ICTs to bring progress to the Philippines and its peoples on many fronts, it is still the hope that the “conspiracy of trust” in a “digitally empowered Philippines” which is what the PDS attempts to achieve, will come to pass. All the best to the former CICT Chair, Atty. Ivan Uy, its Commissioners, particularly, Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim, Ms. Trish Abejo, and all of CICT’s capable people.

For its part in crusading for, and working to uplift the economic status and consciousness of the Philippine citizenry, kudos to the FEF, to Pres. Chikiamco, the FEF Executive Director, Atty. Balatbat III, Atty. Tiamson who kindly accommodated Dr. Ramiscal’s request for pictures of the lecture, Secretary Singson, and all the people who were in attendance last June 29, 2011. Regards also to Dr. Nilo Valdecantos, the Tourism Consultant of Laguna Province, who had a “working dinner” that night. Till the next FEF lecture!