The Manila bank employee, Reonel Ramones, arrested yesterday
over the Love Bug virus, has been released due to a lack of
evidence against him. His girlfriend, with whom he shares an
apartment, is still being sought for questioning. The computer
disks seized from the apartment are still being investigated by the
authorities.
FBI agents are in the Philippines, assisting in the search for
the virus programmer. They have provided a list of 10 people who
may be connected with the virus and Philippine investigators are
trying to decode the pseudonyms. Federico Opinion, director of the
National Bureau of Investigation, said his office has no computers
and has relied on information supplied by the FBI and by Philippine
ISPs. Opinion said the coded names on the FBI list are believed to
have ties to the Philippines’ AMA Computer College which has 10,000
computer students. Officials at the College have admitted to a
student submitting a visual basic program similar to the Love Bug
in an academic thesis but declined to name the student.
Ramones, who works in the user support department of Equitable
Bank, denied being involved with the virus. He told the Associated
Press, “What hurts is that I did not do it and yet they are pinning
me down… I am not even fond of the internet.” Relatives of Ramones
said he was innocent, adding that the virus could have been created
by the brother and sister of his girlfriend, both of whom share his
apartment. The sister graduated last year in computer engineering
at the AMA College and the brother is a part time student there,
relatives said. Both are reported to be missing.
