FBI agents are in the Philippines, assisting in the search for the virus programmer. They have provided a list of 10 people who may be connected with the virus and Philippine investigators are trying to decode the pseudonyms. Federico Opinion, director of the National Bureau of Investigation, said his office has no computers and has relied on information supplied by the FBI and by Philippine ISPs. Opinion said the coded names on the FBI list are believed to have ties to the Philippines’ AMA Computer College which has 10,000 computer students. Officials at the College have admitted to a student submitting a visual basic program similar to the Love Bug in an academic thesis but declined to name the student.
Ramones, who works in the user support department of Equitable Bank, denied being involved with the virus. He told the Associated Press, “What hurts is that I did not do it and yet they are pinning me down… I am not even fond of the internet.” Relatives of Ramones said he was innocent, adding that the virus could have been created by the brother and sister of his girlfriend, both of whom share his apartment. The sister graduated last year in computer engineering at the AMA College and the brother is a part time student there, relatives said. Both are reported to be missing.