Working towards full protection of the personal data of Fernandinos, the City Government of San Fernando held a comprehensive training course on the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act (DPA) of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) last week in Baguio City.
The workshop was set with a drive of providing full protection for the personal data of its clients and beneficiaries of the city.
The Data Privacy Officers of the City Government – led by Data Protection Officer Atty. Jose Elmer Teodoro – discussed the features of the DPA, specifically the process, advantages, and risks of data protection.
“Along with our thrusts in becoming a ‘Smart City’ are issues on security and privacy that require effective countermeasures. This training course will guide our data privacy officers to appropriately and effectively perform the collection and processing of personal data from various stakeholders,” said Atty. Teodoro.
Teodoro also serves as the City Legal Officer and Acting Human Resource Management Officer.
The features of the DPA were discussed by training specialist Ofelia Borral of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) while an in-depth discussion on the law was facilitated by database management expert and professor Evelyn Villanueva of Central Luzon State University.
Villanueva centered her lecture on the Data Privacy Protection Competency Framework which included five modules.
About 40 participating Compliance Officers for Privacy (COPs) of each department underwent the workshops that determined their understanding and capabilities to respond to the risks of collecting and processing of data from the clients of their respective programs, projects, activities, and services.
As the DPA itself is highly technical and wide-ranging, Teodoro said COPs will still undergo a series of training and workshops in the coming months.
By the virtue of Mayor Vilma Caluag’s Executive Order No. CMO2022-101 released in November of this year, the City Government formed a roster of Data Privacy Officers whose main task is to “protect, secure personal information as part of preserving a human right to privacy.” (CSFP CIO)
