The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) has urged the government for the immediate establishment of National Privacy Commission (NPC) in order for the Data Privacy Act of 2012 to take effect.
The Data Privacy Law, which was approved in August 2012 and hailed by the local ICT industry as a landmark legislation, has yet to take effect since the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) has yet to be drafted and issued by the government.
The JFC noted that the Data Privacy Law will protect and boost the country?s information technology, business process management, and knowledge process management (IT-BPM-KPM) industry, which is expected to contribute $21.3 billion to the national economy and employ 1.2 million Filipinos at end-2015.
?The laudable potential impact of the law on the country and the IT-BPM-KPM industry, however, has been nullified because the government has not created the National Privacy Commission, which would draft and issue the vital IRR needed for the law?s implementation,? the JFC said in a statement.
?The IRR is needed to provide the clear guidelines on dealing with data breaches, establishing data breach policies and response protocols and crafting safety standards, among others,? it added.
The Data Privacy Law aims to protect individual personal information and communication systems in both public and private sectors.
?We therefore call on the Aquino Administration to create the National Privacy Commission under the Office of the President or under the DOST now,? the business group said.
?This commission?s main task is to monitor the implementation of the Data Privacy Law. Once the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is finally formed, the National Privacy Commission can be moved under that ?roof?,? it said.
The JFC is composed of local arms of overseas business chambers of America, Australia-New Zealand, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea as well as the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters.
JFC represents 3,000 member companies trading more than $230 billion with the Philippines and investing some $30 billion in the local market. — PNA
