A4
Opinion
MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2017
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A serious business
EDITORIAL
T
HE newly formed National Privacy Commission has recommended the filing of criminal charges against Commission on Elections Chairman Andres Bautista for the massive data breach in which the personal data of millions of voters were compromised in March 2016. The move is a pointed reminder to those entrusted with sensitive data to do all they can to safeguard the privacy of that information and to make sure it does not fall into unauthorized hands. In what has been described as one of the world’s worst recorded data breaches of a government office, hackers gained access to 16 databases kept in the Comelec website on March 27, 2016, and made these public.
Adelle Chua, Editor
The stolen archive was full of sensitive data, including personal and passport information and fingerprint data, leaving every registered voter in the Philippines susceptible to fraud, identity theft and other risks. The stolen information included the voter database in the Precinct Finder web application with 75.3-million records and the voter database in the Post Finder web application with 1.38-million
records. Also stolen were a firearms ban database, with 896,992 personal data records and 20,485 records of firearms serial numbers, and the Comelec personnel database of 1,267 Comelec officials and employees. The voter database in the Precinct Finder application contained each voter’s complete name, date of birth, gender, civil status, address, precinct number, birthplace, disability, voter identification number, voter registration record number, reason for deletion or deactivation, registration date, and update time. The voter database in the Post Finder application contained information on each voter’s verified name, date of birth, gender, civil status, post of registration, passport information, with number and expiry date, taxpayer identification number, e-mail
address, mailing address, spouse’s name, the complete names of the voter’s mother and father, and the voter’s addresses in the Philippines and abroad, post or country of registration. In its decision dated Dec. 28, the Commission said Bautista’s “willful and intentional disregard of his duties as head of agency” was tantamount to gross negligence, and recommended that charges be filed against him for violations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. In his defense, Bautista sought to pass on the responsibility to others in the Comelec, including his fellow commissioners and the IT Department on which he depend ed for expert advice. “The chairman, after exercising the diligence required by law in supervising and monitoring all departments under him… is not the collector, processor, and custodian of the database,” Bautista said.
He added that as head of agency, he generally trusted the advice and recommendation of the Comelec’s IT experts. If those experts were not found liable, why should he be held responsible, he said. The answer to Bautista’s query, however, can be found in Section 22 of the Data Privacy Act itself, which states that the head of each government agency shall be responsible for complying with the security requirements laid out in the law. One clear sign that Bautista did not take data privacy seriously was his efforts to play down the impact of the website hacking in March 2016. Then in June last year, Bautista’s fellow commissioner called him out for failing to act with urgency on the hacking of the Comelec website. They said Bautista declined to assume direct control and supervision of the task force
created after the incident, “asserting that he is constrained by his limited information technology knowledge.” In response, they pointed out that as the commission’s chief executive, he “is mandated to direct and supervise” operations and administration of the poll body, including that of the IT Department. “The lackadaisical attitude towards complying with relevant laws fosters a suspicion of a complete abandon[ment] of the functions and duties of a head of agency. Further, even the National Privacy Commission has aired its complaint of the difficulty as well as slow pace in obtaining documents from the Commission relevant to their investigation,” the commissioners wrote. Now, Bautista’s inaction seems to have caught up with him. All too late, he might finally realize that data privacy is a serious business, after all.
BACK CHANNEL ALEJANDRO DEL ROSARIO
Getting Naia’s P74-b project off the ground
PENSEES
have been or not is quite another issue, and lies in the realm of the hypothetical. Before the dawning of colonial government, what there were, historians tell us, were different tribes, each with its own normative customs and traditions. But aside from their relevance to the claims of indigenous cultural communities or indigenous peoples, these arcana from Philippine pre-hispanic history are hardly of any juridical importance and currency today. Shari’a is quite a different matter, and that is why it is (or at least a large part of it) is part of the Philippine legal system. The law calls a “prejudicial question” one the resolution of which is indispensable or, in the very least, relevant to the resolution of another. I am insistent that these prejudicial questions relative to our bid for federalism be paid serious heed and given the serious and scholarly attention they deserve. Rewriting the Constitution on the basis of a policy of placation is not a good idea, for one thereby Turn to A5
Turn to A5
The premises of federalism
FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAN AQUINO LARGELY because President Digong has been insistent about it, moves towards changing our political configuration from unitary to federal have not only been picking up speed but dashing forward, alarmingly. No, federalism does not alarm me at all. But when you take a step as gigantic as this towards realigning the distribution of the powers of government, you do not want to do that in reckless haste, but astutely and certainly in a studied manner. There are maps now making the rounds showing how the country is to be divided into “regions” or “states” (we have not quite decided how we are to call these components of the Republic of the Philippines), many even identifying the state capitals. Lately, there was a well-written, scholarly piece on the legal consequence of federalism: the possibility that each state may enact its own codes and laws on matters beyond the legislative competence of the federal government. So will the North Luzon State (or Region) have its own civil code, penal code, com-
FOUR months after the green light was given for a P74-billion makeover of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the project still has to get past the bidding process and off the ground. Interested parties who are eager to submit their bids are wondering: What’s taking the Department of Transportation too long to get things going despite the go-ahead by the National Economic Development Authority. The three-year rehabilitation of Naia as approved by the country’s economic planners in September seeks to improve aviation safety, airport security and maximize arriving and departing passenger capacity, The problem is public bidding cannot take place without the prerequisite terms of reference being spelled out by the DOTr. To say the total rehabilitation of Naia is badly needed would be an understatement. Considering the increasing number of air and passenger traffic worldwide, it is a shame the country is being left behind in providing a worldclass airport. For this, the Naia has earned the ignominy of being ranked by international travelers as the world’s worst airport. The upgrade of Naia is not expected to be finished in time for two major international events this year—the Asean Summit and the Miss Universe beauty pageant both being hosted by the Philippines in 2017. But the government still has an obligation to redeem the country’s “premier” gateway from the rut it has fallen into. The timeline for the completion of the P74-billion airport project is three years, midway into President Rodrigo Duterte’s six-year term. It would be to Duterte’s credit if he could leave a new, improved Naia as his legacy. It should not be only to impress foreign and VIP visitors to the country, like heads of states and the Miss Universe contestants from various countries. Filipino taxpayers also deserve to have an efficient, modern airport. Above all, it is the responsibility of any government to ensure air safety. The Naia has only one runway and limited parking berths for jumbo jets. This has often resulted in arriving airliners being kept on a holding pattern
mercial code? And of course, will that mean that someone admitted to practice law in the North Luzon State must qualify herself to practice in other states as well—very much like lawyers in federal jurisdictions must do? But before getting into the minutiae, I propose a return to a consideration of premises. Many of those states that are federal are so because of historical antecedents: the cantons of Switzerland, the states of the United States, the regions of Germany, the provinces of Spain, the sultanates of Malaysia. So, what, if any, are the historical premises that support the thesis that going federal will be a step in the direction of “progress”, no matter that the latter concept may be muddled? The sultanates of Mindanao offer themselves as a ready answer, except that historically, in respect to them, we deal with fluid borders and conflicting claims. How many lay claim to the title of Sultan of Sulu—and how does
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I am insistent that these prejudicial questions relative to our bid for federalism be paid serious heed and given the serious and scholarly attention they deserve.
one resolve such conflicts? More vexingly, the assumption that a “region” or a “state” encompassing all of Muslim Mindanao will solve the so-called “Mindanao problem” appears to be, at best,
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highly disputable. But the alternative, of course, is to create as many “states” or “regions” as there might be clearly identified and self-identifying ethnicities and tribes—and quite obviously this raises a lot of problems, fiscal and economic not the least among them. Recently, a friend returning to the Philippines on a sentimental visit after she was a Rotex student 35 years ago, gifted me with a treatise on Canadian Constitutional Law, and thus far, it has been a delight for me to be acquainted with the challenges of a “bi-jural” (Canada is both common law and civil law—corresponding to the British and French sections of the country) jurisdiction and how well—and how creatively (in many cases)—Canada has coped with these. And in a country like that, it should not demand too much higher order reasoning to see why federalism is a felicitous order of things. But we have never been bi-jural in the Philippines. Whether we should
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