Data Privacy Act not reason for redacting of information on govt officials’ SALN, official says

September 26, 2017

The Data Privacy Act should not be made as the reason for several redaction of information on government officials' statement of assets, libilities, and net worth, an official said on Tuesday.

In a press briefing in Malacanang, National Privacy Commission Deputy Commissioner Ivy Patdu said that Republic Act No. 10173, otherwise known as the "Data Privacy Act of 2012," did not amend certain provisions of RA No. 6713 or the Code of Ethics of Public Officials and Employees nor RA No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act regarding SALN of a state employee or official.

"It (RA 10173) does not even say that it is attempting to amend these laws. What it just says is that because information is valuable, because it is important, then it must be part of the consideration when discussing issues that concern personal information and personal data," she said.

"So if we look at the law, the SALN law, for instance, what is the required fields? Real property, assets, liabilities and net worth. Even if you look at these through the Data Privacy Act, these are not sensitive personal information, therefore there is no restriction, hindrance, there’s no need to redact this information because they are information that are covered by the law," she added.

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported earlier that Malacanang blackened several information from the SALN of the Cabinet officials. In the past, only the address of a government official was darkened for security purpose.

With the meeting that took place among concerned agencies, Patdu said that if request would be again made about the officials' SALN, it could be expected that there would be no more redaction on some crucial information about the wealth of the officials.

"If ever any redactions were made in the past, perhaps that’s been clarified already in the past few weeks that those information are not --- they should not be redacted...they (information) should be open to the public and they should be included in the SALN," she said. Celerina Monte/DMS