Calls are growing to hold Sen. Jinggoy Estrada accountable after he posted yearbook entries online that included personal information of two individuals.
Privacy Commissioner John Henry Naga of the National Privacy Commission (NPC) said a complaint can be filed against the senator, who posted on Facebook the yearbook entries of Rep. Terry Ridon (Bicol Saro party-list) and former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez.
Estrada previously shared scanned images from their old Lourdes School Quezon City yearbook, where Ridon and Hernandez were listed as batchmates.
The entries included personal details such as their birthdays, home addresses and contact numbers.
“Safe tayo sa kanila?” Estrada wrote in a Facebook post Thursday, adding the following hashtags: “#InvestigationOReunion,” “#LiarsGoToHell,” “#KayaNamanPala,” “#BatchmatesSila,” “#CasinoPaMore,” and “#LaboLayoNgSagot.”
Ridon currently serves as the chair of the House Infrastructure Committee, which is probing alleged anomalies in the DPWH’s infrastructure projects.
Hernandez, meanwhile, appeared as a resource person during one of the House panel’s hearings, where he implicated Estrada and Sen. Joel Villanueva in an alleged kickback scheme involving flood control projects.
Following Estrada’s Facebook post sharing their yearbook entries, Ridon responded online, saying: “Sexy, 12 years old lang ako diyan, linabas mo pa ‘yung address ng bahay ng lola ko.”
Ridon’s remark also referenced Estrada’s code name, “Sexy,” which appeared in the notebooks of Janet Napoles, the alleged mastermind behind the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam in 2014.
The notebooks reportedly documented Napoles’ transactions with various lawmakers.
The Bicol Saro party-list representative, who is also a lawyer, criticized Estrada’s decision to post the yearbook entries, saying it involved “very specific, particular disclosure of information” that may violate privacy law.
“First, which is my name, second, my birthday, and third, which is our telephone number, and last, would be my grandmother’s address,” Ridon was quoted as saying to Naga.
Naga encouraged Ridon to file a complaint with the NPC so the agency would “be able to look into all aspects of possible violations” related to the senator’s post.
Naga clarified that even though Estrada has since deleted the Facebook post, Ridon can still file a case, as long as he secures a screenshot of the post, since his personal information had already been publicly disclosed.
Meanwhile, Estrada’s actions drew criticism from some Filipinos online, who pointed out that as a lawmaker, he should be well-versed in and respectful of the country’s privacy laws and republic acts.
“It’s mind-boggling how ignorant our own lawmakers are about the law on data privacy,” veteran journalist Lynda Jumilla-Abalos wrote.
“Not even funny that the so-called ‘lawmakers’ don’t even know the f*ck*ng law,” another online user commented.
“@terryridon, if I were you, I will file a case. A screenshot of the address is forever on the internet. This plunderer has no brains of his own,” another wrote.
“Another kaso para kay Jinggoy, grabe mang-doxx si accla,” a different Pinoy said.
“T**nang Jinggoy ‘to, puro labag sa batas ang alam gawin, amvuvu,” another commented.
The Data Privacy Act empowers Filipinos to have reasonable control over the flow of their personal data since they have the right to data privacy.
The law ensures that individuals’ personal data is not misused or unlawfully disclosed.
It also states that data subjects have the right to be indemnified for any damages sustained due to inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained, or unauthorized use of their personal data, taking into account any violation of their right and freedoms as data subjects.
The law defines personal data as “all types of personal information.”
Personal information, meanwhile, is defined as “any information, whether recorded in a material form or not, from which the identity of an individual is apparent or can be reasonably and directly ascertained by the entity holding the information, or when put together with other information would directly and certainly identify an individual.”
