Daven Tamayo

E-notarization is now legit: Here's what you need to know about it

Students take part in their online classes inside their home in Parañaque on September 24, 2020. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

Raine Musñgi

ABS-CBN News

<h3 id="isPasted"><em>Twala co-founder and general counsel Attorney Third Bagro says the Philippines has finally closed the “last mile” in digital transactions. But the next test is bigger: Can the country secure, verify and preserve a growing universe of legally binding digital documents?</em></h3><div><br/></div><p>MANILA — The Philippines is finally digitizing one of the last major steps that has kept many business and government transactions tied to paper: notarization.</p><p>For Attorney Third Bagro, co-founder and general counsel of legal-tech company Twala, the change is not simply about replacing a notary’s stamp with a video call. It is about completing a digital transaction that has been stuck in the past.</p><p>The Supreme Court approved its Rules on Electronic Notarization in 2025, while its eNotarization portal opened applications for Electronic Notary Public commissions on August 10, 2026. Twala was accredited by the Supreme Court on August 5 as an Electronic Notarization Facility, allowing it to provide electronic notarization services nationwide under the rules.</p><p>The court’s system allows electronic notarization for acts including acknowledgments, oaths and affirmations, jurats and signature witnessing. Traditional paper notarization remains valid, while notarial wills and depositions are excluded from the electronic system.</p><p>For Bagro, the biggest benefit is surprisingly simple: time.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2mJQlXN9I04??si=1VX1UfZfsDGUdj7m&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>“I think yung pinaka-important is time. I think because every time that is spent on waiting, that is precious time that you can’t get back,&quot; Bagro said.</p><p>That could mean fewer trips to offices, less printing and couriering, and faster movement of documents in business and government. But the next phase raises harder questions.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>CAN THE DIGITAL NOTARY HANDLE SCALE?</strong></div><p>The Supreme Court’s rules envision a Central Notarial Database for electronically notarized documents. Accredited Electronic Notarization Facilities must be capable of automatically transmitting e-notarized documents, syncing electronic notarial books and supporting long-term archiving. They must also have systems to verify whether documents are authentic or have been tampered with.</p><p>The court requires accredited facilities to meet stringent technical standards, including real-time backup and 99.9 percent uptime, apart from maintenance.</p><p>So the challenge is no longer simply putting notarization online. It is building a digital legal infrastructure that can remain available, searchable and trustworthy as adoption grows. And Bagro says the payoff could eventually extend far beyond notarization itself.</p><p>“This completes the digitalization of transactions in government.”</p><p>That opens the door to a much bigger question: What happens when electronic notarization meets property titles, bank transactions and government records?</p><p>Bagro points to the Land Registration Authority’s vision of a more technologically advanced land-registration system, including the potential use of blockchain, AI and geospatial technology.</p><p>For property owners, buyers and banks, that could eventually mean a very different way of proving who owns what. But that is only one part of the transformation.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DIGITAL TRUST FAILS?</strong></div><p>Bagro is also candid about the risks.</p><p>“As to risks, of course, there will be risks with especially quantum computing. So that’s another topic. And then cybersecurity threats, especially where we are in the geopolitical scene. So those are all valid concerns.”</p><p>The Supreme Court’s rules require safeguards including electronic KYC, multi-factor authentication, biometric or facial recognition, liveness detection, anti-spoofing measures and geolocation. Accredited facilities must also use tamper-evident security measures and provide mechanisms to verify the authenticity of electronic documents.</p><p>Bagro says the system could also attack one of traditional notarization’s persistent problems: so-called notarial mills, where documents may be notarized without the required personal appearance.</p><p>“The bank-level EKYC has been adopted by the Supreme Court as a standard for e-notarization.”</p><p>And with blockchain-based verification, he says even a tiny alteration can be detected.</p><p>“Even just one bit of that document that is changed, that is not even visible with the naked eye, that can be tagged and that document will be tagged as not the original document.”</p><p>But that creates a new legal question:</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>IF AN E-NOTARIZED DOCUMENT IS HACKED, ALTERED OR FRAUDULENT, WHO IS LIABLE?</strong></div><p>The answer could involve the electronic notary, the technology provider, the parties to the transaction and the safeguards imposed by the Supreme Court.</p><p>The court requires ENF providers to meet extensive technical and security requirements, including integration with the Supreme Court’s notarial database and data-protection measures.</p><p>Bagro does not promise a glitch-free system. For him, what matters is how quickly the system responds.</p><p>“The important thing is there’s transparency in what we need to do and that we’re able to address as much as possible in as early time as possible.”</p><p>That could become one of the most important tests of the Philippine system: not whether technology ever fails, but what happens when a failure involves a legally binding document.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT STARTING FROM ZERO</strong></div><p>Electronic notarization is not unique to the Philippines.</p><p>The United States has been using remote online notarization for years, with the National Association of Secretaries of State saying 47 states plus Washington, D.C. have laws allowing remote electronic notarization.</p><p>Estonia has integrated remote notarial services with its broader digital government infrastructure, while Singapore introduced legislation allowing specified notarial functions to be conducted through live remote communication.</p><p>But there is no credible global statistic showing an “accuracy rate” for e-notarization. The more meaningful measures for the Philippines will be adoption, transaction volume, system uptime, failed identity checks, fraud attempts, disputed documents, security incidents and how quickly problems are resolved.</p><p>In other words, the country is not simply adopting a finished technology. It is building a new digital trust infrastructure.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>THE HUMAN FACTOR</strong></div><p>Bagro says more than 400 lawyers had registered with Twala, with more than 200 having completed the required training, at the time of the interview.</p><p>But he believes technology is no longer the biggest barrier. Leadership is.</p><p>“It really just boils down to leadership.”</p><p>That could determine whether e-notarization becomes another digital service that exists but remains underused, or whether it actually changes how Filipinos conduct business.</p><p>And the implications could reach people far beyond corporate boardrooms.</p><p>Bagro sees potential applications for OFWs who need Philippine documents notarized, potentially reducing trips, printing, couriering and other logistical hurdles, subject to the Supreme Court’s rules on principals outside the Philippines.</p><p>He also sees applications throughout a person’s life, from the first car or house to business contracts, marriage-related documents, property titles and other legally significant records.</p><p>And Twala is taking the technology beyond notarization itself, using AI to summarize documents and answer questions based on Philippine laws and jurisprudence, according to Bagro.</p>

<p>The system allows electronic notarization for acts including acknowledgments, oaths and affirmations, jurats and signature witnessing.</p>

The system allows electronic notarization for acts including acknowledgments, oaths and affirmations, jurats and signature witnessing.