Lawbytes: The Era of E-Sleuths

June 29, 2013 proved to be a watershed in the history of the Association of Private Detectives and Investigators, Inc. (APDI). Founded by the indomitable Capt. Conrado Dumlao, who also owns the trailblazing detective agency, Truth Verifiers Systems Inc. (TVSI), APDI has sought to establish professional and ethical standards for private investigation agencies throughout the Philippines. It was therefore such a privilege for Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal to be invited to be the speaker on “Cybercrime Investigations” for APDI’s first Monthly Membership Meeting at the admirably secure premises of United Laboratories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The audience was composed of tech savvy or tech literate sleuths who have grappled with legal issues concerning electronic data in their professional engagements. Dr. Atty. Ramiscal took them through several features of the computer itself that can house incriminating digital evidence and expostulated on the applicable Philippine laws, cases and rules governing the extraction and presentation of electronic data in court. What surprised Dr. Ramiscal is the receptivity and apparent familiarity of the participants with the evidentiary doctrines he discussed. He spiced these with applicable cases he unearthed in foreign jurisdictions which held the APDI members’ interest and in many cases, kept them laughing. The audience members were also very much “game” in the metadata portion of Dr. Ramiscal’s lecture. Two hours went by quickly and many members quipped that they want more. Some APDI members also shared some of their professional concerns with Dr. Ramiscal, which he endeavored to give a concise evidentiary perspective, which of course did not constitute his formal professional advice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All’s well that ends well. Dr. Ramiscal desires to thank APDI’s National President, Raul Domingo, National Chair, Renato De Guzman, TVSI’s Cherie and Crisanto Nulud, Eileen Tanchingco and Marietta Cairo for inviting him, and to all the wonderful APDI members for making him part of APDI’s history.

Lawbytes: E-Discoveries in Dipolog

Dipolog has always been in Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal’s to do list of places to visit in the Philippines. This is mainly due to the fact that one of the Philippines’ national heroes, Dr. Jose Rizal, lived, suffered, loved and gave so much of himself to the people in this enchanting place, particularly Dapitan. Dr. Ramiscal is a frequent visitor of the Calamba Shrine in the late 1990’s when he was writing a cycle of poems concerning the friendship between Jose Rizal and Ferdinand Blumentritt, which ended up in his first (and sold out) book of poetry in four languages, “NOELSES”, published by the UST Publishing House. So when the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Zamboanga del Norte Chapter and UP IAJ invited him to give two Mandatory Continuing Legal Education lectures for their lawyers, it was with the deepest gratitude that Dr. Ramiscal accepted, hoping against hope he would get a chance to visit Dapitan.

When he got there on June 26, 2013, at the Top Plaza Hotel owned by Governor Uy, he found out that the Dipolognons are a generous, hospitable and closely knit lot, with smiles and hand waves to spare. The lawyers were quite witty and accommodating. Some are fiercely stylish like Attys. Mary Faith, Meiji, Richele and Rowena.

In the “bonding session” at the dimly lit Café Bon, with Judge Rose, Attys. Rosal, Val and Arnold. Mesdames Mabel, Aleth and the gracious IBP and UP IAJ staff, he shared his  

penchant for chocolate, chili, baking, colors, and gems amid scrumptious food and grand company. The positive energy and topics discussed spilled over into Dr. Ramiscal’s lectures the following day.

His lecture on Electronic Evidence tackled recent developments in the areas of, among others, email authentication, digital photography, website authentication, risks in online social networking, online defamation and pre-crime software. He also imparted to the audience his views concerning dubious features of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which has been the subject of about 15 petitions in the Philippine Supreme Court that challenged its constitutional and legal validity and sought to stop its implementation, as well as the serious flaws and gaps in the Rules on Electronic Evidence. 

Dr. Ramiscal’s follow-up lecture, “Online Human Trafficking” exposed some of the modus operandi that human traffickers use to lure their victims via the Internet. He traced the related developments of the Internet with the pornography industry and how technological growth fueled by the sex industry can come at such a high price. The internet has also made it easier for human surrogacy agencies to flourish as well as the sales of female children, adoloscents and women by international marriage brokers as “cyber brides”. Although the Philippines’ Human Trafficking Law had a provision that prohibited the use of the Internet to facilitate or aid human trafficking, a consultant (Dr. Liquigan) of the Department of Justice’s program against human trafficking stated to Dr. Ramiscal that the internet dimension of this crime has not been explored yet by the DOJ.

The Dipolog lawyers were appreciative of Dr. Ramiscal’s lectures. Some of them even bought his books [Great Shout outs to Attys. Angela, Felin, Joji, Jinky, Sherril and Jordanne (Bajamunde Chan, who was not in the photo)!]. 

One of the best highlights of his visit was the chance given by the IBP President, Atty. Rosal for him to go to Rizal’s place in Dapitan chauffeured by Mr. Nonoy and guided by Ms. Aleth.

When he entered the premises of Dapitan’s hallowed ground, it had been raining but he felt quite warm. The vibrations in this place were gentle but heightened. He felt his spirit lift when he ascended the natural rock promontory that was probably done by Dr. Rizal with his lover, Josephine Bracken, countless times when they were together. The scene from this rock was simply majestic! Dr. Ramiscal bathed and breathed in and out the gentle rays of the sun that was trying to come out, as well as the wisps of the wind that graced his face. The most important e-discovery he made in Dipolog was that his Olympus Camera captured his state of being at this time as a pillar of light. Ms. Aleth took his picture at different angles, positions and directions with different camera settings. The background was always clear, but all his pictures showed his body suffused and surrounded with golden light. And a curious thing happened when Ms. Aleth accidentally took a recording of him changing the setting in his camera, with her own camera. Ms. Aleth’s camera recorded a golden image flash to the left side of Dr. Ramiscal. Upon seeing the image, Dr. Ramiscal blessed it as a sign of Divine Providence for being in Dipolog at last! Thanks again to everyone who made this “dalaw” super especial!

Lawbytes: Cybernotarization and Its Legal Complications

In his May 29, 2013 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) lecture for lawyers held at the Malcolm Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman, Dr. Atty. Noel Guivani Ramiscal tackled a subject that no MCLE lecturer  had done before. “Cybernotarization and its Legal Complications” is a topic and title that had percolated in his mind in his continuing advocacy for clarity of the legal issues concerning e-commerce and electronic evidence in the Philippines.

Dr. Ramiscal delved on the origin and history of notaries for the benefit of the lawyer participants. The evolution of notaries public started with scribes who took down notes for the royalty. In the Louvre Museum in France, a lifelike representation of an Egyptian scribe made some 4,000 years ago stares at the viewer poised as if to transcribe the important words or directive that comes from the viewer’s mouth. The Western view of the roles and functions of notaries public evolved with the necessities of Roman officialdom, then came Charlemagne and the Papal notaries, and the “formal” framework for the functions of a notary was laid down in academia during the 12^th century at the University of Bologna.

The nature of a notary’s work was seen by two academics (Profs. Fuller and Perillo) to be derived from legal considerations stemming from the interpretation and assessment of the evidentiary value of the notarized document, and as a way of clarifying and cautioning the principals and witnesses of the significance of the provisions of the notarized document.  

The perception of notaries by the public they serve depend on where they are located. In Japan, UK, Austria, and Latin American countries, where notarial practice is greatly regulated and limited to certain individuals and professionalized, notaries public occupy a prestigious position. This is not shared by notaries in countries like the US, where over 4 million notaries public abound and hardly no effective regulation are in place, and in the Philippines where the notarial law and the regulations issued by the Supreme Court are observed more in the breach, giving rise to what Dr. Ramiscal had termed “bangketa notaries”.        

 The situation of notaries public in the electronic world where transactions are concluded not on the physical realms but in digital bytes of 1s and 0s have given pause for legislators in some jurisdictions about the possibility of cybernotarization. Dr. Ramiscal apprised the audience relative to the technological developments that make electronic notarization possible, as well legal initiatives in UK, Austria, South Asia, and certain states (Colorado, California, Maryland, Indiana) of the United States. He delved on different kinds of electronic signatures, the technology comprising the public key infrastructure (PKI), and other commercial software options for establishing e-seals and e-certificates. 

In what is a first in an MCLE Lecture in the Philippines, Dr. Ramiscal discussed the legal implications of the Virginia Code on Electronic Notarization which was passed in late 2012, that allowed the two way video and audio conferencing technology to apply to electronic notarization. The difficulties and ramifications of virtually establishing the identity of a principal or witness to an electronic document were expounded by Dr. Ramiscal and he made as the bases for his discussion certain Philippine cases and Philippine rules on notarization. The most significant portion of his lecture was his assessment of the Supreme Court’s A.M. No. 02-8-13-SC, 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice, as amended. Although the Philippine E-Commerce Code and the Philippine Rules on Electronic Evidence provided for the establishment of electronic notarization in the Philippines, such has not been realized yet. No government agency and no court had issued any guidelines for the e-notarization of electronic documents. Dr. Ramiscal offered 14 practical recommendations that were meant to address the issues of cybernotarization, if such becomes an eventuality in the Philippines.

As is usual in his lectures, where “interactivity” with the audience is important, Dr. Ramiscal is grateful to the lawyers who gave their thoughts about the notarial practice, and in particular, the legendary Atty. “Joe” Flaminiano, who regaled the audience with his notarization practices and “karma” during his younger days, and to Atty. Calupitan, whom he prefers to call Atty. Olympia, for sharing her professional insight into things “digital”.    

Dr. Ramiscal trusts that that afternoon of May 29, 2013, where he strove to embed the bytes of e-notarization in the conscious and subconscious levels of the Philippine legal industry through this lecture, will bear useful harvests of connections and realizations someday.