DAR releases Data Privacy Manual to secure personal information of CARP implementors, stakeholders

OFFICIALS and employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) can now rest assured that all types of their personal information relative to their specific roles in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) are kept in strict confidentiality, following the issuance recently of the department’s Data Privacy Manual.

DAR Secretary Conrado Estrella III said that in addition to DAR officials and employees, who are referred to as “internal clients,” the same level of management applies to personal information collected from external clients: “Qualified and potential CARP beneficiaries, landowners, and other stakeholders, including their representatives.”

“This manual serves as a guide to ensure that the collecting, storing, processing, and sharing of all personal information by various offices of the department in the course of the CARP implementation comply with the requirements of the law and applicable rules and regulations,” Estrella stressed.

The DAR chief designated Assistant Secretary for Foreign-Assisted Special Project Josef Angelo S. Martires to serve, in a concurrent capacity, as the department’s Data Protection Officer (DPO).

Martires will be responsible for monitoring and implementing security measures to ensure that the personal information of DAR officials and employees is secured and protected as provided for under the DAR’s Data Privacy Manual.

“These security measures are aimed to maintain the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of personal data and for the protection of data subject’s rights under the Data Privacy Act (Republic Act No. 10173),” Estrella said.

For his part, Martires stressed that data privacy is not just a legal but also a “moral obligation.”

“Hence, we must treat personal information with the same reverence for a precious resource that deserves the utmost care and attention,” Martires said. “It is, therefore, our duty to secure and protect the personal data we collect.”

The 44-page manual states that personal information refers to all data whether recorded in a material form or not, from which an individual can beidentified, reasonably and directly ascertained by the entity holding the