ONEL DE GUZMAN and REONEL RAMONES: R.A. 8484 and R.A.

8792

Onel De Guzman and Reonel Ramones, two young members of an underground group of
computer science students that called itself GRAMMERSOFT. De Guzman, who spawned the
virus, came to be known as the ILOVEYOU worm, or LOVEBUG. The bug was programmed to
replace all files with media extensions such as images, documents and mp3’s with copies of
itself. Then the worm would send an identical email around to all the contacts of a victim’s
outlook address book. Ramones was arrested, while de Guzman went into hiding for a few days,
only to re-emerge to admit that it was possible that he mistakenly sent out the virus, but denied
direct responsibility.
After the investigators traced the destructive computer program, the NBI charged Mr de
Guzman in violation of R.A. 8484 “AN ACT REGULATING THE ISSUANCE AND USE OF
ACCESS DEVICES, PROHIBITING FRAUDULENT ACTS COMMITTED RELATIVE
THERETO, PROVIDING PENALTIES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, a law prohibiting
unauthorized use of passwords for credit cards or bank accounts. Chief State Counsel Elmer
Bautista thought since the Love Bug gathered the passwords from the infected computers that
this could fall under the fraud law. The Philippine justice department said the evidence against
Mr. de Guzman had been insufficient to substantiate the charge filed against him by the National
Bureau of Investigation.
On June 14, 2000, it prompted the Philippine government to pass an anti-hacking bill
which was introduced by then Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and which would subject violators to
imprisonment. The bill became the R.A. 8792 “AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE
RECOGNITION AND USE OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL
TRANSACTIONS AND DOCUMENTS, PENALTIES FOR UNLAWFUL USE THEREOF,
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES”
Philippine prosecutors dropped charges against De Guzman and Ramones due to lack of
legal basis for him to be charged under existing Philippine laws at the time of his arrest. The
Philippines then had no cybercrime law, hacking is not a crime. De Guzman therefore could not
be prosecuted in the Philippines, and he could not be extradited for prosecution in the United
States because extradition treaties require that conduct have been criminalized by the country
seeking extradition and the country holding the suspect.
No one was ever prosecuted for the Love Bug.