MANILA, Philippines--The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and several representatives of industry organizations and other government agencies met Monday to create a technical working group to help revive pending bills on data privacy.

CICT commissioner Monchito Ibrahim told INQUIRER.net that the technical group will initially look into existing proposed measures in the Senate and the House of Representatives that industry stakeholders can help improve.

The organizations that attended Monday's meeting include the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), the Philippine Computer Society, the CIO Forum and the Philippine Internet Commerce Society, Ibrahim said.

From government, representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry, in particular the Board of Investments, were present.

In a separate interview, Claro Parlade, executive director, of the Cyberspace Policy Center in Asia Pacific, confirmed that he presented the results of an initial survey he did during the meeting.

He said the survey provided a "favorable" picture on how the industry would respond to proposed data privacy bills filed in Congress.

Catherine Ileto, the designated spokesperson of the technical working group, said in a separate interview, that the initial survey has found strong support for the creation of a data privacy commission similar to that of Canada and Australia.

"There is strong support for the appointment of a Privacy Commissioner, or other government official, who shall be in charge of ensuring protection of data privacy rights. What is remarkable is the very strong support for vesting in that government official the power to investigate, prosecute and resolve violations of data privacy, which includes the power to impose fines and damages, as well as to publicize violations of data privacy. Similarly, there is very strong support for imposing criminal penalties for violation of data privacy rights," a copy of the summary of the initial survey said.

The initial survey, which covered four industry organizations with a total of 70 respondents, also looked into legal and regulatory measures to promote data privacy.

These organizations include BPAP, the Information Technology Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Internet Commerce Society, and the American Chamber of Commerce.

Ileto said BPAP was among the champions of government measures supporting data privacy because it is part of its goals of developing a better business environment for outsourcing.

Ibrahim said that Senators Manuel Roxas III, Miriam Santiago, and Loren Legarda, and Representative Liwayway Vinzons-Chato at the House of Representatives were among the lawmakers who have filed bills related to data privacy.

"We have to do this now because it is part of our goal until 2010," Ileto said.

Ileto said the next technical working group will invite more industry organizations from the banking, management and other sectors.