FOREIGN businessmen again pushed for the implementation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012, specifically the provision that called for the creation of the National Privacy Commission (NPC), to protect the information-technology and business- process outsourcing (IT-BPM) industry.
In a statement, foreign businessmen belonging to the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) lamented government’s inaction on the implementation of the Data Privacy Act. It calls for the establishment of the NPC, which will draft and issue the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the three-year-old law.
“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,” the JFC said.
The full implementation of Republic Act 10173, or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, the JFC said, will ensure the sustained growth of the IT-BPM industry—the country’s third-largest net foreign earner.
“Champions of the data-privacy law see this landmark piece of legislation as key to securing urgently needed investments in the Philippines’s still-booming IT-BPM industry by addressing investor concerns about the lack of protection of personal data,” the JFC said.
The JFC tied this advocacy with the creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), which has yet to gain ground in either the House or the Senate. The NPC can be an office under the DICT, the group said.
The JFC is a coalition of the American, Australian-New Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese, Korean chambers and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc.
The JFC represents over 3,000 member-companies engaged in over $230 billion worth of trade and some $30 billion worth of investments in the Philippines.