A 27 year old bank worker, Reomel Ramones, has today been
arrested by the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
in connection with the Love Bug computer virus. His 23 year old
girlfriend, Irene de Guzman, is expected to turn herself in later
today or tomorrow.
De Guzman, also a bank worker, is thought to be the registered
owner of the computer which triggered the spread of the devastating
virus which wreaked havoc on millions of computers throughout the
world. The arrests follow a search of the couple’s apartment in the
Manila suburb of Bagong Barangay.
Although the NBI had been keeping the apartment under
surveillance since Saturday, it was unable to act immediately
because computer hacking is not a crime in the Philippines. The
search warrants obtained from a Manila judge, which named both de
Guzman and Ramones, said there was reason to believe that equipment
in the house, possibly including computers and peripheral
equipment, telephones and other hardware, had been used in
violation of the Access Devices Regulation Act.
This Act governs the use of codes, account numbers and passwords
giving access to different types of devices. The maximum sentence
on conviction under the Act is 20 years imprisonment.
It has been reported that, although NBI officials removed
computer disks, telephones, wiring and other material, no computer
was found in the flat.
Some computer experts have remained sceptical, pointing out that
hackers elsewhere in the world could have hacked into the
Philippine computer and used it to spread the virus.
