MANILA — The Supreme Court amended its 2004 Notarial Rules to require notaries public to keep in Portable Document Format or PDF the certified copy of their month’s notarial entries.

Under the amended rules, the digitized document should be emailed to the court clerk within the first 10 days of the following month.

The SC said the PDF files should be sent as direct attachments to the transmittal email.

“This latest reform represents a major step toward a more efficient, transparent, and accessible notarial system, in line with the judiciary’s broader digital transformation goals,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.

The high court prohibited notaries public from adding extra fees for their digitized processes.

“Notaries are prohibited from charging any fees for digitizing, transmitting, or processing these documents,” the SC said.

Courts were also directed to retain electronic duplicated original copies of the notarized documents.

A report on the results must be submitted to the Office of the Court Administrator and another copy to the Management Information Systems Office.

“This aims to support the evaluation of the feasibility of digitally preserving essential notarial markers, such as signatures, thumbprints, and seals,” the SC said.

The SC said the amended rules shall become effective on June 21, 2025, 15 days after the June 6, 2025 publication in two newspapers of general circulation.