Overview:

The study of professional ethics has been mandated by the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) for IT

students since 2001 through CMO No. 25 series of 2001. Prior to this mandate, ethics was
handled by Instructor

professors under the College of Information and Communication Department. Under this format,
the instructor

would cover topics purely on ethical principles and theories without regard to their application to
Computing and/

or Information Technology, using only ethics books as textbooks and reference materials. This
situation eventually

gave rise to debates among the members of the academe on the question, but sad to say all of
this we cannot

perform because of the pandemic. Who should teach the professional ethics course, a Computer
IT Instructor or

Computer Science Instructor?

Introduction

Expectedly, these texts dwell on the discussion of foreign laws and not Philippine laws. In reality,
these

foreign laws cannot be applied in Philippine jurisdiction. In the area of computer ethics, resources
from foreign

authors have been of great help. Since adopting the customary computer ethics of foreign
countries which are

deemed proper and suitable by Filipino 1T professionals would create no controversy, the authors
deemed it best

NOT to reinvent the wheel as far as computer ethics is concerned.

Hence, the Philippine laws included in this text are anchored on the Ten (10) Commandments of
Computer

Ethics as defined by the Computer Ethics Institute. In the area of legal aspects of computing,
however, it is obvious

that adopting foreign laws and invoking them cannot be done in the Philippines. The
inapplicability of foreign laws

to prosecute cybercrimes was felt when our law enforcing officers as well as other foreign
authorities failed to

successfully prosecute the author of the "I LOVE YOU" virus. The "Computer
Misuse Act which was already in force in
the United Kingdom during that time could not be invoked against the author of the
"LOVE" bug notwithstanding the

worldwide effects of the said bug. This was because the crime was committed in the Philippines
where only the

Philippine laws are the only applicable laws which can be used to prosecute the offender. What
we would like to

point out is that, in the study of computer-related laws, it is of little advantage, if any, if a student
of "Ethics for IT

Professionals" as well as ICT Professionals themselves shall study laws of foreign

jurisdiction because these laws

cannot be applied in the Philippines. Thus, books and other materials which discuss the legal
aspects of computing in

the Philippine setting have to be immediately produced and made available nationwide. We, as IT
educators, have

long waited for

Instruction to the Learner

The model Professional Ethics course syllabus of CHED which touched slightly the topic of
ethical theories,

focused heavily on the Code of Ethics for IT Professionals and appropriate Philippine Laws which
are concerned with

the use of technology. To effectively implement this new mandate of CHED, the problem of
providing suitable,

relevant, and comprehensive books and materials should be properly addressed. Under the
present format, the

books being used mainly as references, are mostly, if not all, ethical and legal issues in IT
authored by foreign

writers.