2007: Love of Philippines lures law expert

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Tags: centenary-edition, law

Noel Ramiscal, PhD

When Noel Ramiscal completed his PhD in Law at UQ in 2007, the decision to return to his adopted province Calamba, Laguna, in the Philippines proved the right one.

Through his appointment as University Prosecutor and Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños College, Dr Ramiscal has close to 100 students under his leadership every semester.

His role includes teaching business law to graduate and undergraduate students, as well as literature and philosophy courses to undergraduate students.

He has successfully prosecuted hundreds of respondents in his time as University Prosecutor with cases ranging from misconduct to murder. Now, he serves as special advocate for the university on selected crucial cases that involve faculty, employees and students.

“At the moment, there are only three lawyers in this academic community of more than 11,000 people and I am the only prosecutor and academic with legal expertise on electronic data,” he said.

“I have been asked and I actually did a critique of the cyber privacy and cyber crime bills and I also submitted my own version of the cyber crime bill as requested by the Commission of Information Communications and Technology.”

The Philippine Australian Alumni Association together with the Australian Embassy in December 2008 awarded Dr Ramiscal the first Outstanding Alumnus Award for his work in utilising what he learned in Australia for the service of his countrymen.

Dr Ramiscal was also awarded the Freeman Foundation Fellowship in April 2008, and travelled to Salzburg, Austria to deliver a paper on the legal implications of electronic data on business ventures at the Salzburg Global Conference.

“At the beginning, there were times that I questioned why I came back, but the call of public service has always been strong and my mother, Juanita Ramiscal, recently retired from public service after 36 years at the Department of Justice. All these and more reminded me why the Philippines is worth coming back to,” he said.

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