SC requires notaries to file digital copies of documents

The en banc session hall of the Supreme Court. (Photo By Ramon FVelasquez/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

By Benjamin Pulta, Philippine News Agency

MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) is now requiring notaries public to submit in electronic portable document format (PDF) the copies of notarial entries and instruments acknowledged before them.

The new policy is set out in En Banc Resolution A.M. No. 02-8-13-SC, which amended the 2004 Notarial Rules, according to a news release on Tuesday.

Under the amended rules, notaries public are now required to keep in PDF the certified copies of each month’s notarial entries and the duplicate original copies of instruments acknowledged before them.

These should be emailed to the court clerk within the first 10 days of the following month using the notary public’s official email address.

If there are no entries for the month, a formal statement confirming this must be submitted instead.

All PDF files must be sent as direct attachments to the transmittal email, not as external links to cloud storage, file-sharing platforms or similar sites.

PDF files should not be compressed into archive formats such as ZIP (.zip) or RAR (.rar), and must not require additional extraction or conversion prior to access.

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

Courts retaining electronic duplicate original copies of notarized documents are directed to conduct an inventory and assessment of these materials.

A report on the results must be submitted to the Office of the Court Administrator, with a copy furnished 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.

“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 Amended 2004 Rules was published on June 6 in two newspapers of general circulation and shall become effective 15 days from publication or on June 21.