Dear PAO,

Is a document that had been notarized considered valid if the principal was not physically present before the notary public? I am confused since I always thought that one needs to appear before a notary public when having a document notarized, but my cousin had a document acknowledged before a notary public sometime in May last year. He said he did not appear before the notary public because his barangay was on 'lockdown' at the time due to a high number of Covid-19 cases. Instead, he and the notary public had a zoom conference. I hope you can enlighten me on this.