Are electronic signatures legal in the Philippines? E-Commerce Act and e-notarization

In the Philippines, electronic signatures have been legal since 2000, earlier than in most of the region. What trips people up is not the e-signature itself but notarization: many everyday documents, from affidavits to deeds of sale, need to be notarized before an office will accept them.

The short answer

• The Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 8792) gives electronic documents and electronic signatures the same legal effect as paper and ink, if the signature method is reliable and linked to the signer.
• The Supreme Court's Rules on Electronic Evidence (A.M. No. 01-7-01-SC) make electronically signed documents admissible in court once authenticated, and presume an authenticated signature is genuine.
• Contracts, employment documents and most leases can be signed electronically.
• Anything that must be a public instrument (for example a deed of sale of land that will be registered) still needs notarization. Since 2025, the Rules on Electronic Notarization (A.M. No. 24-10-14-SC) let accredited electronic notaries notarize electronic documents, in person or remotely.
• Wills still follow the Civil Code's formal rules and are not covered by e-notarization.

The law: RA 8792 and the Rules on Electronic Evidence

The Electronic Commerce Act (RA 8792)

Signed in June 2000, RA 8792 says that electronic documents have the same legal effect, validity and enforceability as written documents, and that where the law requires a writing, an electronic document can satisfy it.

On signatures, the Act's legal recognition provision treats an electronic signature as equivalent to a person's signature on a written document when it is shown that a method or procedure identifies the party to be bound and indicates their access to and approval of the document, that the method is reliable and appropriate for the purpose, that signing was necessary to proceed with the transaction, and that the other party can verify the signature. The Act then presumes, unless the person relying on it knows of defects, that an electronic signature is the signature of the person it correlates to and was affixed with the intention of signing.

The Act defines an electronic signature broadly: any distinctive mark, characteristic or sound in electronic form representing a person's identity and attached to or logically associated with the document. That covers a typed name, a drawn signature image or a click-to-sign platform, provided the conditions above are shown.

Electronic vs digital signature under the Rules on Electronic Evidence

The Rules on Electronic Evidence, effective in 2001, draw the distinction many people search for:

• An electronic signature is the broad category described above.
• A digital signature is a specific type: a signature made by transforming the document with public key cryptography, so anyone with the signer's public key can tell whether it was made with the matching private key and whether the document changed afterwards.

To use an electronic document in court, you must authenticate it: by showing it was digitally signed by the purported signer, by showing other appropriate security procedures, or by other evidence of its integrity and reliability that satisfies the judge. Once authenticated, an electronic or digital signature is the functional equivalent of a handwritten one, and the court presumes it belongs to the person, was affixed with intent to sign and was made by a method that worked without error. A digital signature is easier to authenticate; a simple e-signature relies more on surrounding evidence such as an audit trail.

Government PKI (PNPKI)

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) runs the Philippine National Public Key Infrastructure (PNPKI), the government certification scheme for digital signatures set up under Executive Order No. 810 (2009), with a Government Certification Authority that issues digital certificates free of charge. Government employees use it heavily, and DICT says private individuals can apply too, with a valid ID and a photo. The certificate can be kept on your computer, a flash drive or a USB token.

Documents you cannot sign electronically (or need a special signature)

RA 8792 does not contain a long exclusion list the way some laws do. Instead, other laws that require a special form still apply on top of it.

Notarization: the 2020 interim rules and the 2025 e-notarization rules

During the pandemic the Supreme Court issued the 2020 Interim Rules on Remote Notarization of Paper Documents (A.M. No. 20-07-04-SC), which allowed notarization of paper documents by videoconference under strict conditions.

The bigger change is the Rules on Electronic Notarization (A.M. No. 24-10-14-SC), which the Supreme Court promulgated in February 2025 and which took effect in 2025. They create Electronic Notaries Public (ENPs), lawyers separately commissioned for electronic notarization, who can serve principals anywhere in the Philippines and in some cases abroad. Notarization can be in-person electronic (you appear physically before the ENP) or remote electronic (you appear by videoconference). The work must go through an accredited Electronic Notarization Facility with e-KYC identity checks, multi-factor authentication and liveness detection. The rules cover electronic documents in PDF format; paper documents, notarial wills and depositions stay under the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice.

In practice this means a deed can now be signed electronically and notarized electronically, but only through an accredited facility and a commissioned ENP, not through an ordinary e-signature platform. Whether a particular Registry of Deeds accepts an electronically notarized deed for registration is worth confirming with the Land Registration Authority or the specific registry before you rely on it.

Real estate

The Civil Code requires acts that create or transfer real rights over immovable property to appear in a public document, and the Property Registration Decree requires a notarized deed for registration. So a contract to sell or a reservation agreement can be e-signed between the parties, but the deed of absolute sale that transfers the title needs notarization, either traditional or through an ENP. See can you e-sign a property deed or sale contract.

Employment contracts and leases

The Labor Code does not require employment contracts to be signed on paper, so offer letters and contracts are commonly e-signed. Residential leases can be signed electronically too; if the lease runs more than one year, it must be in writing to be enforceable, which an electronic document satisfies. See employment contracts and leases.

Company documents and government filings

Board resolutions and secretary's certificates are often e-signed, but when a government office requires them notarized (for example for bank or SEC purposes), notarization still applies. The BIR and the SEC run their own online filing systems (such as eFPS, eBIRForms and eFAST) where you file through your account, and some submissions still require notarized documents uploaded as scans. Check the specific filing requirements.

How to get a digital certificate in the Philippines

• PNPKI (DICT): free certificates for government personnel and, according to DICT, private individuals, applied for through the Government Certification Authority's online registration system with a valid ID and photo.
• Accredited e-notarization facilities verify your identity during e-notarization; that is a separate process from holding your own certificate.

KovaPDF's Digital Signature tool needs your certificate as a .pfx or .p12 file with its password. If your certificate is stored on a USB token, it cannot be used on any website, including this one. See how to get a digital signature certificate.

Where KovaPDF fits

• Contracts, NDAs, job offers, leases: Request Signatures collects signatures from one or many people through private links and returns a PDF with a certificate of completion (fingerprint, names, emails, times, IP addresses) sealed with a trusted timestamp. These are simple electronic signatures backed by an audit trail, the kind of evidence that helps authenticate a document under the Rules on Electronic Evidence. They are not digital signatures and not a notarization.
• Just you: Sign PDF places your drawn, typed or uploaded signature on the page.
• Certificate signatures: with an exportable .pfx or .p12 (for example a PNPKI certificate you hold as a file), Digital Signature creates a digital signature with a trusted timestamp and long-term validation data.
• Checking a signed file: Verify PDF Signature.

No online signing tool, KovaPDF included, can replace notarization or the formalities for a will. KovaPDF can still help you prepare, merge and fill the PDF you take to the notary. For the background, read digital vs electronic signature.