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.

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.

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!

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.