MANILA, Philippines ? A joint academe-private sector panel is urging Senate to integrate proposed bills on intellectual property and data privacy.

The said bills -- Senate Bill 1180 and Senate Bill 880 -- were drafted during the previous Congress.

Senate Bill 1180, or the Data Protection Act of 2007, authored by Senator Manuel Roxas III, aims to "establish fair practices in the processing of information relating or personal to individuals".

Senate Bill 880, authored by Senator Edgardo Angara, seeks to amend certain provisions in Republic Act 8293 or the country's Intellectual Property Code.

In recommendations sent to the Congressional Commission on Science Engineering and Technology (COMSTE), it was suggested that both bills be integrated into one bill.

This merged bill should cover issues significant to the information and communications technology (ICT) sector such as cross-border transfer of data, accountability of data "processors" and misuse of personal data.

These provisions apply especially to business process outsourcing companies since majority of their clients are based overseas, said Beng Coronel, Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) president and part of the COMSTE panel that drafted the proposal.
The panel also recommended that these bills should follow the APEC Privacy Principle rather than European Union standards.
"The EU standards are restrictive while the APEC standards are preventive and apply more to local companies," Coronel told INQUIRER.net in an interview during this week?s COMSTE hearing.

Coronel, also president of software firm Pointwest Technologies, noted IP and data privacy laws should take into account the transactional nature of BPO service providers.