SC: Chat logs, videos may be used as evidence in criminal cases

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MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that the ubiquitous online chat logs and videos may be used as evidence without violating the right to privacy if they are used to determine if a crime has been committed.

In a decision written by Associate Justice Mario Lopez, the SC’s Second Division found Eul Vincent Rodriguez guilty of qualified trafficking in persons under the Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act (Republic Act 9208) using Facebook and other online platforms.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay P2 million in penalty, with legal interest of 6 percent per annum from the finality of judgment, until full payment.

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The Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force of Region 7 began investigating Rodriguez in 2013 after receiving a tip from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Using a decoy account, Police Officer 3 Jerry Gambi communicated with Rodriguez across various online platforms that has a record of their communications.

Rodriguez offered the operative nude shows in exchange for money, including one involving his minor cousins.

An entrapment operation was set up at a hotel where Rodriguez offered to have 14-year-old “AAA” do a live nude show.

During the entrapment operation, Rodriguez was arrested and charged after accepting marked money from an undercover confidential informant posing as a foreigner.

The Regional Trial Court convicted Rodriguez, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.

In upholding Rodriguez’s conviction, the high court ruled that the videos and recordings of the chat logs of his conversations with Gambi can be admitted as evidence.

The high court rejected Rodriguez’s arguments that they were inadmissible for violating his privacy rights.

The SC said RA 10173, or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, allows the processing of sensitive personal information to determine a person’s criminal liability and to protect the rights and interests of persons in court proceedings.

As the chat logs and videos presented by Rodriguez were submitted as evidence to assess his criminal liability for qualified trafficking, his right to privacy was not violated, it added.

It also emphasized that the videos and chat logs were presented as evidence to show Rodriguez’s method of reaching out to foreigners through Skype or Facebook and offering minors for sexual exploitation.

Notable precedent on data privacy and online messaging

This is the second notable ruling by the SC this year involving social media.

In a ruling last March, the SC dismissed a Mindoro judge who solicited bribes from lawyers, litigants, and even local elective officials in exchange for favorable actions through messages sent through his mobile phone.

The SC en banc found Judge Edralin Reyes, Presiding Judge of Branch 43, Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Roxas, Oriental Mindoro, guilty of gross misconduct and ordered his dismissal from service after the tribunal’s Management Information Systems Office (MISO) uncovered compromising messages sent through the erring magistrate’s iPhone.

Reyes’ iPhone was synced with his SC-issued laptop that he had returned to the high court.

The Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) investigating team found that Reyes was the user of the laptop and the owner of an iPhone 6S Plus from which the iMessages came.

In its ruling, the SC said the judge could not expect reasonable privacy from the use of the laptop which was government property.

Forensic experts recovered SMS/iMessage conversations, contact information, photos, videos, and iPhone notes from the laptop.

Reyes used his iPhone to communicate and ask for bribes from several lawyers and private individuals, in exchange for favorable action on cases pending before him.

Specifically, the erring judges borrowed money and asked for “pabaon” or pocket money from a lawyer whenever Reyes attended seminars and trainings; asked another lawyer to be his “dummy” in a transaction involving a 900-square-meter lot that Reyes owns; and received money, a car, and guns from private practitioners in exchange for favorable action.