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.

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