I.T. Phone Home

Let's try to revive this

2007-01-12T06:46:00.000-08:00

The Sem has finished...

Let's see if this can be continued...

Thursday Mornings Will Never Be The Same Again

2006-09-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

It is just a matter of time when this country will have to face the developments in ICT.

Will those in this picture looking like students be up to the [legal] challenge?

Tracing the Hack 2

2006-09-26T05:47:00.001-07:00

(Finally Part 2)

We continue the story of Totoy the hacker
( http://itphonehome.blogspot.com/2006/08/tracing-hack.html) who succesfully hacked into his school's web server and defaced his school's official webpage for revenge on a school official. He used a commercial DSL account for this purpose.

At the ISP

Bagito found that the IP address used for the hack is assigned to an ISP in Manila. Armed with a search warrant, Bagito went to the ISP in question to look into their records corresponding to the time stamp he got from the server. Fortunately, the ISP was in very cooperative mood and more fortunately, the ISP has not yet deleted its logs pertaining to that time frame. Assisted by one of the ISP's topnotch system administrator, they were able to get to the log file and match the IP address with the time stamp from the server. With these information, they were able to get the account details of the owner of the said DSL account. At this stage, Bagito may now have the necessary information to obtain a seach warrant to be used in his quest to obtain the computer used in the perpetration of the hack.

Summary

This story of Totoy and Bagito for all intents and purposes is a very simplified version of an account of a hacker. A true-to-form hacker will not leave such telltale traces of his or her work. Of course, a competent system and network administrator will not leave his system undefended, or at the least will see to it that the system's logging mechanism is adequate for tracing purposes. As can be seen from the story, the success of knowing who the hacker is depends on the initiative of many persons to in safeguarding their respective systems. If there is no logging mechanism in place, and if there is one, making sure that the data stays intact for a reasonable time, is essential to knowing the identity of the hacker. The cooperation of these people is indispensable.

Tracing the Hack 2

2006-09-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

ICT Governance or Just More Government Incompetence?

2006-09-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

It was very interesting that the Commissioner of CICT acknowledged in his lecture the 40 % failure rate (may be higher since he did not define the parameters of measurement) in getting the government connected. The government should follow the lead of the private sector in using technology to make things more efficient and in the end, save costs.

It was discussed how different government agencies run on different programs due to the incompetence (or corruption) of public officials, creating the inter-operability problem. Imagine if you can have computers of different government agencies talk with each other instead of you having to actually go to the different agencies every time that you need to transact with the government. What is worst is that some of the government agencies buy hardwares that they do not need, and sometimes they cannot even operate. Maybe the CICT should work with the Ombudsman if any government agency will not follow its lead since the Ombudsman Law has given the “protector of the people” power to act not only regarding illegal activities but also any act of injustice or inefficiency in any public office.

The solution to the government failure to get wired is not only ICT governance. For ICT Governance is merely a euphemism for simple management or decision making in an organization regarding ICT matters. At the end of the day, even if we have a great ICT plan/blueprint for the government and ICT decision making structure laid out corruption, human nature and incompetence will eat away everything even before we start the plan. But this should not deter us from trying to wire the government. The next batch of public officials should have IT knowledge for surprisingly part of the problem now is that some people do not even know how to operate a computer. (The CICT might want to give mandatory lectures for all government officials.) People are afraid of what they do not know or they will merely disregard it as unimportant since they do not know its usages/benefits. People are afraid of losing jobs for the whole bureaucracy is paper-based, there are so many documents needed to get something done. Those in the public service should understand that the government is not here just to be their employer; they should really learn that they are here to serve the people.

The problem with the corruption in the Philippines is that there is no honor among thieves. According to an interview with an executive of some foreign company, even after they paid certain fees to some government officials the result is not even guaranteed. Although I am not espousing corruption, but we have to be practical about its existence, I suggest that they think about the government and the people every time that they get their money. At least they should get the hardware that the government needs even above costs (factoring corruption), as long as they deliver something to the people. They should at least give the people something that actually works.

National ID System

2006-09-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

We have to be careful about the analogy of the UP Student ID system and the National ID System for the latter has a broader effect on the lives of the citizens. Everything about the citizen may be accessed by a sequence of numbers only. What are at stakes are not just our grades but about how many house/s, car/s a citizen has, the amount of tax he paid, etc.

Although the idea of a national identification number is great but it is fraught with dangers; it is true that like any system only the system administrator/s will have absolute access to the system while others will have limited access, but human experience has taught us that no system is full proof and that there are a lot of the so called “geniuses” who can illegally gain access to it. These information/data could also be traded illegally. Our law enforcement officials even have problem with credit card fraud, identification theft; how can we expect them to protect the system. It will be a data mining heaven for criminals (in uniform or not).

May be the people will be amenable to a simple system involving some government agencies that they usually transact with such as LTO, NSO (birth cert.), NBI. But definitely they should not include anything that reveals the financial status e.g. tax return of a person for that would even put the lives of the people in danger. The level of trustworthiness of our government is definitely very low. Maybe they should build on an existing system such as the Comelec ID system; allowing it to be use as an SSS card or a driver’s license (at least people will not have multiple licenses).

Wisdom of the Optical Media Act of 2003 (RA 9239)

2006-09-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

The policy of the law is to protect and promote intellectual property rights. Although the proponents/authors of the law drafted it with the intention of regulating the container (optical media) and not the content; but the reality or the resulting effect of the law is giving the IPR owners another layer of protection over their work and imposing an undue burden on the technology, hence impeding its use and development. It was not necessary for Congress to enact the law (OMA) for the Intellectual Property Code (RA 8293) provides enough protection for IPR owners.

The law imposes an undue burden on optical media and magnetic media (Sec. 26) in its bid to give more protection to the content owners. The real purpose of the law is not to regulate the container but the content. We can see this from their definition of manufacturing, mastering, and replication of optical media; manufacturing is the act or business of producing optical media or devices “CONTAINING sounds and/or images, or software code” by mastering or replication. They define manufacturing equipment as any and all equipment, machine, or device, now known or to be known in the future, “intended or designed for the production or manufacture, by mastering and/or replication of optical media”.

The intent or the underlying purpose of the IP Law is to strike a balance between the rights of the IPR owners in reaping economic benefits over their work in order to spur their creativity for innovation and the rights of the public over information or access of such work. In enacting this law, the Congress tilted the balance in favor of the IPR owners and gave them power beyond their creation (to go after IPR infringer) and over the technology which MAY OR MAY NOT be used for purpose of IPR violation.

It is admitted that technology such as optical media will make infringement of IPR easier and faster but this is no reason to regulate all technologies, now or in the future, just because of their potential for evil. The IP Law is sufficient to protect IPR owners and they should use it against those evil doers; they should not knock on Congress door every time that a new technology threatens their IPR. As for Congress, they should not be cowed into enacting these stupid laws (regulating technology)which is for the benefit only of a specific sector of the society, IP owners, and not for the general public at large; Congress should not forget the right of the public to access of information and also access to such technology (optical media). It is unfair to threat technology as a bane to society just because of their potential for evil; technology is not like illegal drug which potential for evil overwhelms its benefit for the public. Technology should be welcome by all. I suggest for the IP owners to review their set up (e.g. pricing, marketing) to fight against piracy; they should not rely on Congress to regulate all the technologies for changes and developments are constant and at the rate technological changes are going, they cannot hide forever from the truth that it is really getting easier to infringe over IPR. They should undergo self-assessment and think of strategies to use this technology for their own benefit. Gone are the days of high economic returns for IPR; they must balance their own rights with those of the public. They must realize that the do not have a captive market anymore; that the public would not necessarily side with them just because they lost a lot of money over a wrong done against them. They must adapt to changes and not expect Congress to hold back or control/regulate changes for them.

NOTE: I might write about the constitutionality/unconstitutionality (the law or certain provisions) of the OMA for next week.

X Rating not the end for Erap documentary

2006-09-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

In what could be an incentive for this administration to regulate the Internet, the Joseph E. Estrada documentary after being rated X by the MTRCB is available for download at the Joseph Estrada website . Of course there is a tremendous amount of materials available through the Internet that would normally get an MTRCB X-rating, but this could be a special case. This move by the proponents of the documentary is in clear act of defiance of the MTRCB decision. Of course the MTRCB, nor any agency of the government for that matter, cannot do anything about it. As it is, and particularly in this country, the Internet is still a self-regulating. The MTRCB may have won the television battle but the war is definitely far from over. Maybe Sec. Gonzales can come up with something.

In defense of Snakes on a Plane

2006-08-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

Despite the countless nasty comments hurled against the movie Snakes on a Plane, there is still something nice that can be said about it. It eventually had to end. Kidding aside, people expecting to see a crappy B-rated movie got what they expected a first class crappy B-rated movie. Niceties aside, others have said that the movie was outright stupid and dumb, lacking any creativity or at worse devoid of any substance and meaning. That said, these people were expecting a whole lot from a movie that is not marketing itself as an art film or a movie that has a storyline that would become a classic that would transcend the ages crossing the varying preference boundaries and intermingling the film connoisseurs with the ordinary film buffs. They expected a whole lot from a movie that projected itself as a movie with snakes on a plane. Anybody who expected anything anymore would either be fooling himself or herself. The title in itself was a dead giveaway. Creativity was thrown out the window the minute they decided to use that title. Without using any logic or rational thought, from the title alone, one cannot expect to see a thought-provoking movie or a movie with any substance. The movie is just about snakes on a plane. One cannot overemphasize such fact. It’s just about snakes that were on a plane.

One might be tempted to ask the actor why he starred in such a movie, as one reporter did. The actor only had a simple answer to an otherwise “legitimate” question, he just wanted to be in it. No more, no less. He didn’t need to read the script nor even know the general story line. He was just caught by the title alone. Snakes on a plane. Who wouldn’t?

The global media hype created by the people in the blogosphere should not be used as an indicator that a movie will be any good or that it would have a surprise twist in the end. The hype that was created did not involve anyone saying that the movie was going to be good. There was just the hype that, however, fizzled out when the movie came out. In fact, most of the blogs that contributed to the hype were of the idea that that the movie would be a flop or, civilities aside, would have a resounding tremendous flop. The important thing to remember though from this experience is the fact that once again the power of the Internet has been proven. The Internet has already been established as a powerful tool for marketing sleeper-movie hits like the Blair Witch Project. It has also established itself as an excellent repository of facts and bull_hit. One only has to have a discerning mind to distinguish between the two. The hype created by the movie should’ve been an excellent exercise in discerning between what is plain hype from the “substance” of the movie itself. To those who expected to see a crappy B-rated movie and saw one, congratulations to you because you have made good use of your head. But for anyone expecting more, take a step back and examine yourselves. Where did you go wrong? The movie should be given congratulatory praises for conveying what it wanted to convey, motherf_cking snakes on a motherf_cking plane. Can’t wait to see the next movie, Elephants on a Train. Wonder about its plot and premise, if you please.

Tracing the Hack

2006-08-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Totoy is a computer programming student and enthusiast who had just learned the art of hacking. Armed with his intoductory knowledge about hacking, he successfully gained access to a one of his schools web servers. Incidentally, he was holding a big grudge againts the school's chairman, Atty. Amang. Seizing this chance, he defaced the front page of the school's website and in a clear and distinct manner placed a compromising image (graphically manipulated and spliced of course) of the head of the school. Immediately upon doing this dastardly act of defacement, promptly closed his home DSL Internet connection and slept for the night.

The next day, the head of the school, and most of the studentry and faculty, were surprised at the new look of their school's website. Chagrined, Atty. Amang promptly caused the server to be disconnected and isolated then promptly called the NBI Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division. Being a good friend of Division Chief Elfren Meneses, the good Division Chief assigned the case to Agent Bagito, his newest recruit, who had just listened to one of his lectures regarding cybercrimes. The green rookie is now faced the task of "tracing the hack".

Dissecting the Server

(It is assumed that this case is an investigator's dream. The hacker is an eager novice who does not cover his tracks and the administrator of the server while may not be that versed in securing his machine is diligent with the server log files.)

Among Bagito's initial tasks is to look at the offended server's log files and see the log entries relevant to the incident. Agent Bagito should at least look at the configuration file of the webserver and look for the directory where the web files are located and search for the start or index page for the website. In many cases this would have the name "index.html". Then, he should look at the time stamp when the file was last modified. Next he would look at the events log of the server and look for the entry wherein the said file was accessed and modified corresponding to the time when the file was last modified. The events log should also show the username of the person who last modified the file. From here, Agent Bagito can now search the server's access log and do a crosscheck of the username and the time stamp. Agent Bagito would then find a match and from there would determine the source IP address of the device which was used for the hack.

Tracing the IP

Loosely speaking, an Internet Protocol (IP) Address is the computer's address on the web. When one connects his/her computer to his/her ISP using a dial-up or DSL account which requires the entry of a username and password, it is most likely that the IP address to be used is dynamically assigned by the ISP and normally varies per ISP log-in. (To test this, for Microsoft Windows users, open the command prompt and there type "ipconfig /all" minus the quotes.) It is most likely that Totoy's ISP is using IP version 4 (IPv4). That in itself is not much relevant but to have a better appreciation of the trace, it is suffice to say that with (IPv4), there is only a limited number of IP adddresses available for the use of the whole world (4,294,967,296 assuming many things ; ) ). Because of the this inherent limitation, IP address allocation is strictly regulated by IANA (http://www.iana.org). IANA divided the world into Internet Registries (Regional Registries, National Registries, and Local Registries) which is tasked to allocate IP addresses per ISP. How would this help Agent Bagito?

With the IP address obtained from the logs, Agent Bagito would determine the ISP this particular IP address is assigned. He could do this by going to IANA itself or to the Registries or just use his favorite Web Browser. He chose the last. Using his favorite web browser he went to the IANA website and from there he found out that the Internet Registries' websites has a tool for determining to whom an IP address is assigned. He first looked at the Asia-Pacific Registry (http://www.apnic.net and http://www.apnic.net/apnic-bin/whois.pl) and tried the IP address he obtained. Luckily, the information may be viewed by the public and the seach revealed the ISP to whom the IP address is asssigned. Luckily, the ISP is located in Metro Manila.

(To be continued)

Functional Equivalent Approach: Uselessness and Confusion in the Inclusion of Section 23 (Tax Situs Rule) in the E-Commerce Act?

2006-07-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

One of the principles in the law is to give the same effects of paper based transactions to electronic transactions (functional equivalent approach) for the legal validity/enforceability of any act does not depend on the form or the medium in which it is contained. But in this case, by including a specific provision (a vague one at that), the law seems to distinguish between paper-based transnational contracts/acts and those acts done via electronic transactions. Our present tax law (statutes and jurisprudence) governing transnational transactions is already adequate without such a provision; the provision will only give rise to disputes/confusions due to the vagueness of its application to the tax implications of an act.

Section 23 is about “place of dispatch and receipt of electronic data messages or electronic documents”; this could be important for civil or other non-tax aspect of the transaction regarding the resolution of conflict of laws issues. But the legislator added a sentence stating that “This rule shall also apply to determine the tax situs of such transaction.” This is vague for I do not see any application for this provision for, as I mentioned above, our tax law does not give importance to place of dispatch or receipt of transactions. The only application I see is for the documentary stamp tax (DST) of transactions; but this may not necessitate such a provision since the tax burden is imposed on either parties to the transactions (the burden of taxation is not specify) as long as someone pays the government. However, it is true that some provisions regarding DST may state the place of transactions to determine whether or not the transaction is subject to the tax but this is more of an exception/rare case since our tax law is very strict now for as long as the transactions has any relation to or take effect in the Philippines it may be taxed e.g. Section 179 of the NIRC a amended by RA 9243 debt instruments are subject to DST “including those signed abroad wherein the object of contract is located or used in the Philippines…”

This sentence in Section 23 is an addition purely made by our legislator for it is not in the UNCITRAL Model Law. I believe that even the administrative agencies that formulated the Implementing Rules and Regulations have difficulties in understanding the said sentence. For the IRR only provides that “This rule shall also apply to determine the tax situs of such transaction to the extent not inconsistent with Philippine situs rules and regulations which may be promulgated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) relating to the tax treatment of electronic commerce transactions.” I agree with the approach for the sentence in the law is superfluous due to our extensive tax law even though electronic devices might have been used or electronic documents are involved, especially with the application of the Functional Equivalent principle. But I disagree with the phrasing of the IRR for it would amount to undue delegation of authority to the BIR, the law does not give such power to BIR; at most, the IRR should just say that the rule should be interpreted consistent with the existing tax law and jurisprudence. A basic rule in statutory construction is that between a general law and a special law, it is the special law that will govern when applicable; in this case, since both are special laws, the E-Commerce Act regarding electronic transactions and tax laws regarding tax issues, we must try to harmonize both laws for the legislature is presumed not to have intended for such inconsistency to arise. The tax situs rule in the E-Commerce Act could be applicable in the future if the legislature used “place of dispatch or place of receipt” as basis for taxation; the legislators could not have intended to change our tax laws by just one sentence or even by just one provision. Our present tax law is clear regarding transnational transactions; it is also applicable even if the parties used electronic devices in their transaction (functional equivalent principle).

By: Andrew Corro

Having Computers and Access Not Enough

2006-07-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

Speaker Jose De Venecia, Jr. in one of his statements during the opening of the third regular session of the 13th Congress spoke of the House of Representatives' move to fully computerize its operation by year's end. Included in this computerization project is the installation of a direct "link" between a congressperson's district and his/her office in the Batasan so as to facilitate the fast and efficient transmittal of a district's need that requires House action, especially budgetary requirements. It is not much the statement but rather the almost non sequitur manner by which it was presented.

In my own personal experience of having witnessed (and participated) offices being "computerized", the proponents of such projects considers the fact of installing computers, having these computers "networked", connecting such offices to the internet, and the like, equivalent to modernization and "true computerization". True, the computers and printers replaced the mechanical typewriters and the delete and backspace button replaced the liquid paper, such fact of replacement remained just that - a replacement. For the most part, those who were used to the old ways simply used these new instruments to perform their tasks the old fashioned way. An example would be that of encoding a document using the computer, then printing the document on paper, and finally send it to the boss for comment instead of encoding and emailing it. And speaking of emailing, in order to break-in some employees to the use of the internet, emailing was used as an exercise to show them a way of communicating with their friends and loved ones through the internet. It was immediately effective, only as to have helped them discover on their own the wonders of instant messaging and chat. In short, the most that the employees did with the time they saved from using the computer to draft documents was to chat, email, and surf the net for trivial stuff.

I say this because the way the Speaker of the House made use of the word computerization is not dissimilar to the way the word was used in the above scenario. "Computerization", and in some instances this would mean just the act of putting a single computer at a school to "serve" hundreds of students, has been used as a magic word which would immediately translate to efficiency and better delivery of service; as if replacing a typewriter with a computer will necessarily lead to increased productivity.

As a matter of experience, the result is not necessarily so. Computer, internet access, and computerization of services are of course just means to an end. Sadly, there are times when that end is not made known to those who should make it happen. In that case, then the exercise is just a waste of money and time.

Paul, Jovian,Andrew

Fastfood chain not so virtual-ous after all ?

2006-07-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Arguably, Google is now the search engine of choice. As such, a webpage making it to the beginning of a Google search result will most probably be viewed. The potential for free, and worldwide, advertisement of one's online presence and the contents therein eventually came to the attention many.

Among the many ways that can convince Google's unique page ranking algorithm to place your site nearest the beginning of the search, there are two most popular methods. One of which is called Google bombing or Google washing, which is decent, and the other is spamdexing, which is downright nasty. The former involves asking web administrators to link your page to theirs using a specific format while the latter involves the practise of deliberately placing content within a site which are not relevant to the ordinary user and that will fool the search engine into giving such website a ranking which is not deserved. (See references below for better understanding of the process involved.)

Could it be that a Pinoy does not have to look far for an example of a website that utilizes this technique of spamdexing? could it really be that the very company that gave us the juicylicous and crispilicious fried chicken makes use of spamdexing? Visit the sites below and judge for yourself.

Paul

References:
http://technology.inq7.net/infotech/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=10471. Viewed July 19, 2006, 11:46 AM GMT+8
http://www.isulongseoph.org/ . Viewed July 19, 2006, 11:46 AM GMT+8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb. July 19, 2006, 10:28 PM GMT+8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamdexing. July 19, 2006, 10:28 PM GMT+8

Have Florita, Go Home

2006-07-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Heavy rains fell on the morning of July 12 much to the excitement of students. Heavy rains normally means no classes in Metro Manila. (Flooding of roads normally follows heavy rains in Manila). But much to the disappointment of students (just being honest), the morning news did not bring any good ones. There was no declaration of suspension of classes. The then OIC of the Department of Education felt it prudent to leave the decision to the parents of the students whether or not to send their children to school. Talk about a doing a Pilate. On hindsight, I think she is not to blame. Suspension of classes is normally based on storm signals and there was no storm signal raised in Metro Manila that day. At that point, it could be said, that the students just heaved a sigh of defeat and steeled themselves to go to school and brave the rains. But came the Office of the President to the rescue.

Later that day, the Office of the President issued Memorandum Circular no. 104 declaring the suspension of work in all govenrment offices starting 12:01 of that day. Needless to say, this memorandum circular reached the attention of the concerned offices in the middle of the afternoon prompting those concerned to go home earlier than usual not decided whether to treat the news gladly or not.

Lack of the ability to gather information and to transmit it to those who have the capacity to use it for the benefit of the public may have been the culprit then. Sadly, in this age of information gathering and dissemination computed in nanoseconds, the Philippines sometimes does it in hours due to lack in technology. For a country that is in the direct path of tropical depressions, the lack of equipment needed to predict and track them efficiently is telling. It is just not a priority. Maybe investing in such technology is not viewed as such. Maybe it is viewed as a cost. And as the government views it that way, then no investment will be made. And we would just have to brave more rains.

Paul, Jovian, Andrew

Human Interaction in the Time of Convergence: To Love and to Hold?

2006-07-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

The technological advances in the field of information and communications technology have been measured more in leaps and bounds. The changes happen so fast that a hardware that an individual recently bought that initially would have been the state-of-the-art technology at that time would move into obsolescence in a little over two years software, in just a few months. The changes may be fast but the breakthrough that resulted has spawned numerous machineries that will, as National Geographic puts it, redefine how we live.

Take the ubiquitous cellphone for example. Once, these devices are for use of the busiest people who are always on the go such as lawyers, brokers, and sports agents. Now, even the street food vendor owns one. With this market increase, the cellphone producers have to outdo one another in the functionality and features of their particular brand. Once, analog cellular phones were state-of-the art but now you’ll be a laughing stock if you still use one. Once mobile phones were only used to make voice calls, now the mobile phone is used as a radio, camera, music player, personal digital assistant, a watch, a voice and video recorder, and so forth. Once, short messaging service was talk-of-the-town, now its multimedia messaging service, which allowed for recorder voice, graphics and video transmission and reception. It would seem that these so-called full-featured devices are becoming the de facto symbol for convergence. Though these features come at a cost (financial as well as another discussed below), users seem not to mind.

Conversely, it cannot be denied that the development in technology in general and ICT in particular has greatly contributed in bridging the geographical divide among nations by providing a more affordable and accessible communications media such as the Internet and a technology running through it, Voice over Internet Protocol. VoIP provided a more economical means of communications instead of the traditional circuit switched technology which monopolized the telecommunications industry. VoIP has been exploited by our transient Filipinos abroad to communicate with their loved ones here thus effectively closing the distance that separated them from each other. There are very few things sweeter than hearing the voice of a loved one from across the ocean.

However, as the technology continuous to improve, it would seem that a new gap has been created. People nowadays are somewhat content with an impersonal call, or text, rather than a real, normal and face-to-face interaction. A handshake, a hug, or an embrace cannot be sent over electronic packets no matter how technology may develop. There is still a big difference between a real lips-to-lips kiss from that of a mere video-streaming kiss, notwithstanding what a recent phone commercial says. Though love may still be found in the Internet, the lovers still excitedly anticipate the warmth and fuzziness of a real embrace coming from their beau as chatting on-line is never sufficient and the occasional phone (or video) call still lacking.

By: Andrew Corro, Jovian Dumlao, and Paul Soriño

Analysis of Section 37 of RA 8792

2006-07-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

It is clear in Section 37 that the Congress intended the law to be harmonized and at par with international standards. Hence, due regards shall be given to its international origin and the need to promote uniformity in its application. The Philippines is no stranger to this kind of statutory interpretation since some of our laws are foreign in origin e.g. Civil Code and the Revised Penal Code are of Spanish origin.

The law provides that "generally accepted principles of international law shall be considered", meaning, international customs regarding electronic commerce will be taken cognizance of by courts. This is in accordance with Article 2 Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution wherein the Philippines adopts the generally accepted principle of international as as part of the law of the land. There will be difficulty of ascertaining international customs; even the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has difficulty in determining international customs accepted by countries of the world.

The law provides that the court shall likewise consider conventions on electronic commerce in interpreting it. This is limited to those conventions which were ratified by at least 2/3 of all the members of the Senate, in accordance to Article 7 Section 21 of the 1987 Constitution; or else, the provision will be unconstitutional.

Some would say that this provision encroached on the powers of the judiciary; for the duty and power to interpret or construe a statute or constitution belongs to the judiciary. And how or in what manner the law would be interpreted depends on their discretion; and what tools or aids of interpretation depends on their judicial discretion. That this provision is unconstitutional for it would hampered or unreasonably limits judicial discretion. A counter-argument would be that the provision enjoys presumption of constitutionality; and that the provision is merely directory and not mandatory (the Congress is not telling the Judicial department how to interpret the law), for it merely expressly contains the intent of Congress in enacting the law.

BY: Andrew Corro, Paul Soriño , and Jovian Dumlao.

Original Document Rule in Electronic Evidence: A Misnomer?

2006-06-25T06:33:00.000-07:00

Introduction: What is the original of an electronic document in light of electronic evidence and where or how can we get it in order to prove a fact in issue?

The inclusion of such a provision or “term” in the law (even in the UNCITRAL Model Law) shows a clear bias for paper transactions and a different understanding of the original document rule in evidence.

Discussion: The best evidence rule, also known as the original document rule is found in Rule 130 Sec. 3-8 of the Rules of Court; it simply means that if a party wants to prove the contents of a “writing” he must present to the court the original of the writing if available. The rule is not very strict nor absolute; it applies only if the purpose is to prove the contents of a writing and also the Rules provide for circumstances and ways to go about it, by presenting secondary evidence, if the original document cannot be produced.

The E-Commerce Act, the Rules on Electronic Evidence, and the Model Law treated a mere process of authenticating evidence as the original document rule. The original document rule for electronic evidence can be simply summed up as such electronic document or electronic data message which can be authenticated by proving its integrity when it was “first generated in its final form”- I take it to mean the form where the legal transaction has already been perfected, e.g. the final contract electronically signed by all parties. In sum, it just needs to be shown to the court that the electronic evidence has not been tampered with; that the information has remained complete and unaltered. This simple process of authentication can be done by offering evidence, such as testimonial evidence, about the whole process; from generation, storage, and to retrieval. It is worth mentioning that the standard of reliability varies; it shall be assessed in the light of the purpose for which the information was generated and in the light of all relevant circumstances. The Model Law provides that what is required is only a “reliable” assurance as to the integrity of the information from the time when it was first generated in its final form. It should be called the “Unaltered/ untampered Electronic Document rule” for the original document rule in the Rules of Court only guards against photocopies of original documents. I think this process is a waste of time if the data are stored by well-known private data storage companies such as IBM, the court has no reason to doubt the authenticity of the electronic evidence to be presented.

It is also worth pointing out that the Supreme Court has a different understanding of the rule as contained in the Rules on Electronic Evidence (Rule 4 Section 1). It seems to defined it as a mode of presenting electronic document ( a printout or output readable by sight or other means, shown to reflect the data) rather than a process of authentication.

By: Andrew, Paul, and Jovian.

About Us

2006-06-21T04:01:00.000-07:00

For good or for ill, Messrs. Paul, Jovian, and Andrew formed themselves in a group. Though their number is insufficient to be convicted of robbery by a band, it is hoped that their combined and individual intellects (the use of the word "intellect" debatable as it were) be sufficient to make this page of some worth.

This page is dedicated to the exposition of facts and legal matters regarding the state of information and communications technology in the Philippines as well as the ideas and opinions of these three stooges on the matter. The ideas and opinions that may appear in this stage is to be taken and regarded as that of the individual presenting it and him only, unless the contrary is provided.

Comments and reactions, no matter how contrary or violent they may be are allowed. However, the use of profanity and "fighting words" are not allowed.

Read on.