PINES City Colleges will still be allowed to continue its policy for incoming single female medical students to undergo pregnancy test until the National Privacy Commission (NPC) have seen possible violations.
In its two hour closed door initial investigation held at the Department of Information and Communications Technology-Cordillera compound in Baguio City NPC Complaints and Investigation Division Chief lawyer Francis Acero said the mission of their office is to look into the purpose of the data gathering of information from students thru pregnancy test.
“In our letter, we noted that it appeared that Pines City Colleges did not have a registered data protection officer but they clarified that earlier and they prevented registration documents which changes our approach. If an entity that we understand appears to violate provisions of the data privacy act on its face and that entity is not registered, then that to us is a signal that the entity does not comply with the provisions or meaning they do not understand what is going on,” Acero explained.
This following a recent order by the educational institution mandating those students intending to study at Pines to undergo and pass the pregnancy test before entering the said educational institution.
“We understand that there was a letter provided by the school physician of Pines City Colleges and their VP for Administration to submit names of their female enrollees to the school physician to facilitate what they call mandatory pregnancy testing for their students and to our knowledge, there is no directive from the Commission on Higher Education requiring mandatory pregnancy testing which called our attention and it seems it violate provisions of the Magna Carta for women and it was something we have to investigate since we are presently conducting an investigation with other agencies of government her in the city,” the Complaints and Investigation Chief stated.
The National Privacy Commission, or NPC, is an independent body created under Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012 mandated to administer and implement the provisions of the Act, and to monitor and ensure compliance of the country with international standards set for data protection.
It is attached to the Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for purposes of policy coordination, but remains independent in the performance of its functions.
“The National Privacy Commission requires institutions to undergo with their five step program starting with having a registered data protection officer, privacy impact assessment, crafting policies, implementation, and a regular revision and review of its process of data collection and gathering,” Acero stated.
The Commission safeguards the fundamental human right of every individual to privacy, particularly Information privacy while ensuring free flow of information for innovation, growth, and national development.
“If we make a determination that the purpose is not legitimate this time then we will issue a stop processing order. We still have to go with this and we don’t just issue stop processing order for nothing,” Acero added.
Pines City Colleges presented NPC with its registered data protection officer in the name of Regina Prats which is part of its five step program.