"Love Bug" Suspects To Be Slapped With Minor Offense

A joint team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has decoded 17 diskettes seized from the home of the "alleged author" of the virus, Reonel Ramones, NBI deputy director for investigation Nelson Caabay said. Ramones was detained last week but subsequently released for lack of evidence.

At least 10 other names of computer programmers and students were decoded from the diskettes and the NBI said they are being treated as possible suspects. "I was informed ... that more than 10 persons appeared on the diskettes," Caabay said. "But since there is no law against computer crime in the country, we are studying filing malicious mischief and destruction of property against them."

Under Philippine laws, malicious mischief is defined as an action to deliberately damage other people's properties. It carries a maximum jail term of up to six months on damages exceeding $24.

President Joseph Estrada's spokesman Ricardo Puno acknowledged there was a legislative vacuum in the Philippines. Puno said Congress was aware of the problem and that they will immediately "try to correct whatever legislative vacuum" there is.

Experts believe the password-stealing virus was launched from Manila last week, crippling millions of computer systems worldwide from the White House to the British and Danish parliaments.

Last week, university student Onel de Guzman admitted he might have accidentally launched the virus. He and former classmate Michael Buen submitted theses proposals on password theft and self propagating programs that if combined could have created the virus, officials said. Buen on Sunday denied having any role in the creation or release of the virus.

Both men are members of the student group called Grammersoft, which wrote software programs for small businesses and allegedly wrote and sold theses to computer science students. The word Grammersoft appeared on the text of the virus sent through electronic mail