Supreme Court E-Notarization Goes Live Today: What Filipinos Need to Know

Getting a document notarized in the Philippines has long meant one thing: showing up in person, in front of a notary commissioned for that particular city or province. That changes today, Monday, October 19, the date the Supreme Court set for its electronic notarization service to go live. Accredited electronic notaries can now serve clients wherever they happen to be in the country, as the Inquirer reported ahead of the rollout. The Court's eNotary Services site already lists a directory of commissioned electronic notaries for the public, along with registration and document verification portals for the accredited platforms.

The legal groundwork is not new. The Court promulgated the Rules on Electronic Notarization (A.M. No. 24-10-14-SC) on February 4, 2025, together with guidelines for accrediting the platforms that notaries will use. What arrives on October 19 is the actual service, which the Court said in August would become fully operational once the first batch of electronic notaries is commissioned (GMA News, Newsbytes.PH).

No more borders for your notary

Traditional notaries can only act within the territory where they are commissioned. Under Rule VI, Section 9 of the new rules, a commissioned Electronic Notary Public can perform electronic notarial acts for principals located anywhere in the Philippines. Someone in Dumaguete could, in principle, have an affidavit notarized by a lawyer in Quezon City without either of them traveling.

There is a narrow door for Filipinos abroad, too. Rule IV, Section 5 allows notarization for a principal outside the country, but only while that person is inside a Philippine embassy, consulate, or honorary consul's office, and the notary must be in the Philippines. The principal pans the camera to show where they are, and an embassy or consulate officer confirms their presence before the session goes ahead. Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa said the Court has started talks with the Department of Foreign Affairs about extending the service to overseas Filipino workers, though details have not been announced, according to the Inquirer.

In person or over video

The rules set up two modes. In-Person Electronic Notarization still has you sitting in front of the notary, but the document and signatures are electronic. Remote Electronic Notarization replaces the physical meeting with a live videoconference. Rule III says pre-recorded videos are strictly prohibited, everyone has to stay in view of the camera for the entire session, and sessions may be recorded. Except for the embassy setup above, the notary must confirm through the platform's geolocation function that all parties are in the Philippines and have them state their actual location.

What can and cannot be e-notarized

The rules apply to electronic documents. Rule I, Section 5 gives an electronically notarized act the same validity and effect as one done under the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice, with three exceptions: the new rules do not cover notarial wills, deposition taking, or paper documents signed with wet signatures or marks. Paper documents with handwritten signatures stay under the 2004 rules, so your local notary is not going anywhere.

Within that scope, Rule IV covers the familiar notarial acts, including acknowledgments, jurats, and signature witnessing done electronically. In each case the notary has the signers apply their electronic signatures through the platform in full view, then completes an electronic notarial certificate bearing the notary's electronic signature and Electronic Notarial Seal. The seal carries the notary's name and roll number and must include a QR code, bar code, or similar element approved by the Court.

Two government agencies are already lining up to accept the output. On October 13, the Court signed agreements with the Land Registration Authority and the Securities and Exchange Commission on accepting, verifying, and processing electronically notarized documents for property transactions, business registrations, and regulatory filings, The Manila Times reports.

How identity checks and signatures work

Notaries cannot just use any video app. Rule VII requires them to use a Supreme Court accredited Electronic Notarization Facility, and lists what such a platform must do. The requirements read a lot like a bank's onboarding checklist:

• e-KYC identity verification consistent with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issuances
• multi-factor authentication, such as facial recognition, biometrics, or one-time passwords
• liveness detection and anti-spoofing to confirm a real person is on camera
• geolocation, plus the ability to detect and block VPNs used to hide a user's location
• HD video of at least 1280 x 720 pixels, with users told that 2 Mbps per person is the minimum connection
• tamper-evident security such as end-to-end encryption, a way to check whether a notarized document is authentic or altered, and output in PDF/A for long-term archiving
• 99.9% uptime, compliance with the Data Privacy Act, and registration with the National Privacy Commission

Signers still need competent evidence of identity, meaning at least one valid government-issued ID with a photo and signature, and the rules list examples from passports and driver's licenses to PhilHealth, SSS, and senior citizen IDs. The notary must sign with either a digital signature, based on public key cryptography, or a secure electronic signature that is unique to the signer and reveals any later change to the document. Principals can also download the audiovisual recording of a remote session for their own records.

Every notarized document is meant to land in a Supreme Court Central Notarial Database in PDF/A format. Until that database is up, the rules provide for a transitional period in which PDF copies go to the Court's Electronic Notary Administrator instead.

Who can become an electronic notary

Under Rule VI, applicants must be lawyers in good standing with clearances from the Office of the Bar Confidant and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, compliant with MCLE and Unified Legal Aid Service requirements, residents of the Philippines for at least a year with a regular place of work or business in the country, and free of any final conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude. Applications are filed electronically with the Electronic Notary Administrator, who can hold a summary hearing to check the applicant's familiarity with the rules. One requirement is a certificate from a platform provider confirming the applicant has watched its instructional video. A commission is valid for two years.

The Court opened applications on August 10, 2026, Newsbytes.PH reported, and set virtual summary hearings for the first 60 applicants on August 26 and 27, according to GMA News.

The platforms themselves go through a separate accreditation. Under the accreditation guidelines, providers pay a PHP 5,000 application fee, post a PHP 100,000 cash bond once approved, and pay PHP 5,000 to renew. The first accredited platforms are NotarizeIT by Unawa, Twala by Ohelio, and QLegal by Quanby Solutions (Inquirer, The Manila Times). The Court's eNotary Services site walks providers through the process.

What it will cost you

The rules do not set a peso amount for the public. Rule XII says electronic notarial fees follow whatever guide on notarial fees the Supreme Court issues, that a notary may waive the fee, and that a notary may add reasonable telecommunication and other incidental costs. The platforms must support digital payments and electronic official receipts. The Court's materials reviewed for this article did not include a published fee schedule for electronic notarization, so it is worth asking your notary for the full price before you book a session.

Part of a bigger digital push

Justice Caguioa said the push to digitize notarization grew partly out of how hard it was to reach government services during the COVID-19 pandemic (Inquirer). The rules themselves describe the work as part of the Court's Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027, and say the drafters studied electronic notarization in the United States, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea before settling on the final version.

For most people the old way will still be around for a long time, and nothing here forces anyone to go digital. But for a working parent in a province far from a notary, or a Filipino abroad who can reach a consulate more easily than a flight home, Monday's launch could turn a half-day errand into a video call.