REPUBLIC ACT NO.

8792 June 14, 2000

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE RECOGNITION AND USE OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCIAL AND
NON-COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS AND DOCUMENTS, PENALTIES FOR UNLAWFUL USE
THEREOF, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress

assembled:

PART I

SHORT TITLE AND DECLARATION OF POLICY

Section 1. Short Title – This Act shall be known as the “Electronic Commerce Act of 2000.”

Section 2. Declaration of Policy – The State recognizes the vital role of information and
communications technology (ICT) in nation-building; the need to create an information-friendly
environment which supports and ensures the availability, diversity and affordability of ICT products
and services; the primary responsibility of the private sector in contributing investments and
services in telecommunications and information technology; the need to develop, with appropriate
training programs and institutional policy changes, human resources for the information
technology age, a labor force skilled in the use of ICT and a population capable of operating and
utilizing electronic appliances and computers; its obligation to facilitate the transfer and promotion
of technology; to ensure network security, connectivity and neutrality of technology for the national
benefit; and the need to marshal, organize and deploy national information infrastructures,
comprising in both telecommunications network and strategic information services, including their
interconnection to the global information networks, with the necessary and appropriate legal,
financial, diplomatic and technical framework, systems and facilities.

PART II

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN GENERAL

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Section 3. Objective – This Act aims to facilitate domestic and international dealings, transactions,
arrangements agreements, contracts and exchanges and storage of information through the
utilization of electronic, optical and similar medium, mode, instrumentality and technology to
recognize the authenticity and reliability of electronic documents related to such activities and to
promote the universal use of electronic transaction in the government and general public.

Section 4. Sphere of Application – This Act shall apply to any kind of data message and electronic
document used in the context of commercial and non-commercial activities to include domestic
and international dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements contracts and exchanges and
storage of information.

Section 5. Definition of Terms – For the purposes of this Act, the following terms are defined, as
follows:

(a) “Addressee” refers to a person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic
data message or electronic document. The term does not include a person acting as an
intermediary with respect to that electronic data message or electronic data document.
(b) “Computer” refers to any device or apparatus which, by electronic, electro-mechanical, or
magnetic impulse, or by other means, is capable of receiving, recording, transmitting,
storing, processing, retrieving, or producing information, data, figures, symbols or other
modes of written expression according to mathematical and logical rules or of performing
any one or more of these functions.
(c) “Electronic Data Message” refers to information generated, sent, received or stored by
electronic, optical or similar means.
(d) “Information and Communications System” refers to a system intended for and capable
of generating, sending, receiving, storing, or otherwise processing electronic data
messages or electronic documents and includes the computer system or other similar
device by or in which data is recorded or stored and any procedures related to the recording
or storage of electronic data message or electronic document.
(e) “Electronic Signature” refers to any distinctive mark, characteristic and/or sound in
electronic form, representing the identity of a person and attached to or logically associated
with the electronic data message or electronic document or any methodology or
procedures employed or adopted by a person and executed or adopted by such person with
the intention of authenticating or approving an electronic data message or electronic
document.
(f) “Electronic Document” refers to information or the representation of information, data,
figures, symbols or other modes of written expression, described or however represented,
by which a right is established or an obligation extinguished, or by which a fact may be prove
and affirmed, which is receive, recorded, transmitted, stored, processed, retrieved or
produced electronically.
(g) “Electronic Key” refers to a secret code which secures and defends sensitive information
that cross over public channels into a form decipherable only with a matching electronic
key.
(h) “Intermediary” refers to a person who in behalf of another person and with respect to a
particular electronic document sends, receives and/or stores provides other services in
respect of that electronic data message or electronic document.
(i) “Originator” refers to a person by whom, or on whose behalf, the electronic document
purports to have been created, generated and/or sent. The term does not include a person
acting as an intermediary with respect to that electronic document.
(j) “Service provider” refers to a provider of –
i. On-line services or network access or the operator of facilities therefor,
including entities offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections
for online communications, digital or otherwise, between or among points
specified by a user, of electronic documents of the user’s choosing; or
ii. The necessary technical means by which electronic documents of an originator
may be stored and made accessible to designated or undesignated third party.

Such service providers shall have no authority to modify or alter the content of the electronic
data message or electronic document received or to make any entry therein on behalf of the
originator, addressee or any third party unless specifically authorized to do so, and who shall
retain the electronic document in accordance with the specific request or as necessary for the
purpose of performing the services it was engaged to perform.

CHAPTER II

LEGAL RECOGNITION OF ELECTRONIC WRITING

OR DOCUMENT AND DATA MESSAGES

Section 6. Legal Recognition of Electronic Data Messages – Information shall not be denied
legal effect, validity or enforceability solely on the grounds that it is In the data message
purporting to give rise to such legal effect, or that it is merely referred to in that electronic data
message.

Section 7. Legal Recognition of Electronic Documents – Electronic documents shall have the
legal effect, validity or enforceability as any other document or legal writing, and –

(a) Where the law requires a document to be in writing, that requirement is met by an
electronic document if the said electronic document maintains its integrity and reliability
and can be authenticated so as to be usable for subsequent reference, in that –
i. The electronic document has remained complete and unaltered, apart from the
addition of any endorsement and any authorized change, or any change which
arises in the normal course of communication, storage and display; and
ii. The electronic document is reliable in the light of the purpose for which it was
generated and in the light of all relevant circumstances.
 (b) Paragraph (a) applies whether the requirement therein is in the form of an obligation or
whether the law simply provides consequences for the document not being presented or
retained in its original from.
(c) Where the law requires that a document be presented or retained in its original form, that
requirement is met by an electronic document if –
i. There exists a reliable assurance as to the integrity of the document from the
time when it was first generated in its final form; and
ii. That document is capable of being displayed to the person to whom it is to be
presented: Provided, That no provision of this Act shall apply to vary any and all
requirements of existing laws on formalities required in the execution of
documents for their validity.

For evidentiary purposes, an electronic document shall be the functional equivalent of a written
document under existing laws.

This Act does not modify any statutory rule relating to admissibility of electronic data massages
or electronic documents, except the rules relating to authentication and best evidence.

Section 8. Legal Recognition of Electronic Signatures. – An electronic signature on the

electronic document shall be equivalent to the signature of a person on a written document if
that signature is proved by showing that a prescribed procedure, not alterable by the parties
interested in the electronic document, existed under which –

(a) A method is used to identify the party sought to be bound and to indicate said party’s
access to the electronic document necessary for his consent or approval through the
electronic signature;
(b) Said method is reliable and appropriate for the purpose for which the electronic document
was generated or communicated, in the light of all circumstances, including any relevant
agreement;
(c) It is necessary for the party sought to be bound, in or order to proceed further with the
transaction, to have executed or provided the electronic signature; and
(d) The other party is authorized and enabled to verify the electronic signature and to make the
decision to proceed with the transaction authenticated by the same.

Section 9. Presumption Relating to Electronic Signatures – In any proceedings involving an

electronic signature, It shall be presumed that –

(a) The electronic signature is the signature of the person to whom it correlates; and
(b) The electronic signature was affixed by that person with the intention of signing or approving
the electronic document unless the person relying on the electronically signed electronic
document knows or has noticed of defects in or unreliability of the signature or reliance on
the electronic signature is not reasonable under the circumstances.

Section 10. Original Documents. –

 (1) Where the law requires information to be presented or retained in its original form,
that requirement is met by an electronic data message or electronic document if;
(a) The integrity of the information from the time when it was first generated in its final form, as
an electronic data message or electronic document is shown by evidence aliunde or
otherwise; and
(b) Where it is required that information be resented, that the information is capable of being
displayed to the person to whom it is to be presented.
(2) Paragraph (1) applies whether the requirement therein is in the form of an obligation
or whether the law simply provides consequences for the information not being
presented or retained in its original form.
(3) For the purpose of subparagraph (a) of paragraph (1):
(a) The criteria for assessing integrity shall be whether the information has remained complete
and unaltered, apart from the addition of any endorsement and any change which arises in
the normal course of communication, storage and display ; and
(b) The standard of reliability required shall be assessed in the light of purposed for which the
information was generated and in the light of all the relevant circumstances.

Section 11. Authentication of Electronic Data Messages and Electronic Documents. – Until
the Supreme Court by appropriate rules shall have so provided, electronic documents,
electronic data messages and electronic signatures, shall be authenticated by demonstrating,
substantiating and validating a claimed identity of a user, device, or another entity is an
information or communication system, among other ways, as follows;

(a) The electronic signature shall be authenticated by proof than a letter , character, number or
other symbol in electronic form representing the persons named in and attached to or
logically associated with an electronic data message, electronic document, or that the
appropriate methodology or security procedures, when applicable, were employed or
adopted by such person, with the intention of authenticating or approving in an electronic
data message or electronic document;
(b) The electronic data message or electronic document shall be authenticated by proof that
an appropriate security procedure, when applicable was adopted and employed for the
purpose of verifying the originator of an electronic data message and/or electronic
document, or detecting error or alteration in the communication, content or storage of an
electronic document or electronic data message from a specific point, which, using
algorithm or codes, identifying words or numbers, encryptions, answers back or
acknowledgement procedures, or similar security devices.