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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

Members of the audience while on tea break

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

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

Thank you!

God Bless Us!

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

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

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

Thank you!

God Bless Us!

Dr. Atty. Noel G. Ramiscal at the Parthenon

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

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!