Background:
Senate Deliberates Data Protection Act
PRIVACY LAW—PHILIPPINES
October 18, 2011
The Philippines Senate has begun deliberations on the proposed Data Privacy Act, which includes monetary fines and jail terms for data breaches, unauthorized disclosure of data to a third party and disclosure of sensitive personal information, reports Business World. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, said the country lacks "the over-arching policy framework that upholds privacy laws and penalizes individuals for overstepping them." The Senate committee has approved the creation of a National Privacy Commission to implement the regulations once enacted. A Business Processing Association representative lauded the effort, saying, "a data privacy law will pave the way to increased client or investor confidence as it solidifies our commitment of data security to our foreign clients."
Pros and Cons:
The bill will protect the privacy as it will somehow eliminate unauthorized dissemination of data without or consent of a person. Although the bill does not contain cross-border data transfer restrictions, the law will apply to certain foreign processing of personal information about Philippine residents. In an apparent effort to protect the domestic outsourcing industry, however, the law will not apply to "personal information originally collected from residents of foreign jurisdictions in accordance with laws of those foreign jurisdictions, including any applicable data privacy laws, which is being processed in the Philippines.
Legal Basis:
Specific provisions concerning the right to privacy over information are found in: Republic Act no. 1405, as amended (Secrecy of Bank Deposits Law)
* National Internal Revenue Code 1997 in relation to the power of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to obtain information from certain taxpayers.
Constitutional guarantees :
The right to privacy :
* Against unreasonable searches and seizures (section 2, Article III, Constitution).
* For privacy of communications and correspondence (section 3, Article III, Constitution).
Online References:
