Reomel Ramones, his wife Irene de Guzman and her sister Jocelyn were detained yesterday after bureau officials raided an apartment. Bureau officials didn't disclose whether the two women will also be charged.
Investigators earlier today said they suspect Ramones was responsible for the virus, which attacked email systems from Ford Motor Co. to the British Parliament, mainly using Microsoft Corp's Outlook software. The attack was the biggest of its kind to date, and the virus is considered more virulent then the Melissa attack on computer systems last year.
Ramones and de Guzman, according to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, lived simply and quietly in the ground floor of a small three-story apartment. The couple, took public transport to work rather than use their own car, starting out at 7 a.m. and returning about 12 hours later every day.
Government lawyers will have to be very creative in coming up with a legal case against Ramones, if he is arrested.
"We have no law for this particular offense," Opinion said admitted in a radio interview.
In the absence of a specific law against unauthorized access of computer systems, Philippines prosecutors would have to rely on existing laws to go after hackers.
The country's laws on breaking and entering could apply to computer hacking, BusinessWorld reported, citing National Computer Director General Ramon Seneres said.
"There is no need to create special laws to prosecute cyber crimes if there are existing implement able laws," Seneres said.
One such law is the Access Devices Act, a law banning the use of access devices for fraud. Commonly used against unauthorized credit card use, the law was the basis agents used to obtain a search warrant that the led to the raid.
Still, the government will have to find more evidence than the stack of magazines on computer and information technology discovered in the couple's home if they are to build an ironclad case. The raid failed to turn up a computer, an important piece of evidence that could help authorities pin down the couple's culpability.
Under the law, a person found guilty of unauthorized use of accessing devices faces 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of at least 10,000 pesos (US$242 million).
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