Task force clarifies mandatory disclosure of patients’ info

EXAMINATION A patient in Manila undergoing a swab test. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines —The Duterte administration on Monday assured coronavirus patients that it would be careful in handling their information in conducting contact tracing as several senators sought safeguards to ensure the data would not be misused.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesperson for the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, said mandatory disclosure of the personal information of COVID-19 patients did not mean the government would share their data with the public.

The Department of Health (DOH) would be the repository of the information and it would be the one to share the data with local governments and law enforcement agencies that would help in tracing the people exposed to COVID-19 patients, Nograles said.

Disclose to DOH

“We are not telling the patient to disclose to the public; we are telling the patient to disclose to [the] DOH all accurate and honest information,” he said in a televised briefing.

“The DOH, in the context of contact tracing, may ask [local governments] and law enforcement agencies to help in contact tracing and to do that, [the] DOH must necessarily share the information with these enforcers but all mindful of the provisions under the Data Privacy Act,” he added.

The DOH will issue guidelines on contact tracing and data sharing, taking into account data privacy as well, he said.

COVID-19 patients must also disclose accurate and truthful information to the DOH, and doing otherwise would land them in trouble, as truthful disclosure is required by law, Nograles said.

“They need to tell the truth, according to the law. They cannot refuse to disclose information. It is clear that they cannot refuse if they are asked, and they need to tell the truth,” he said.

Prior consent

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Cagayan chapter said patients’ information should only be used for contact tracing, and disclosing patient information on social media and unofficial publications by groups other than the DOH and the Office of Civil Defense was illegal.

“We are of the firm belief that the sole reason for requiring the public disclosure of identities and diagnoses of patients is for the purpose of speeding up … contact tracing and not for purposes of making known to the general public the identities and other information of COVID-19 patients,” the group said in a statement issued on Sunday.

“The disclosure of basic information of COVID-19 patients by an instrumentality that is not a medical practitioner or a medical treatment institution for purposes of informing the public and without prior consent from the data subject is therefore prohibited by law,” it stressed.

The lawyers’ group warned that insisting on divulging patient information for the consumption of the general public “would do more bad than good.”

“Soon, we will be hearing about patients who refuse to be tested for fear that [their] identity will be divulged to the public. Soon, we will be hearing about patients who will feel like they are criminals, walking targets of discrimination, abuse, and maltreatment,” it said.

“We therefore urge the Cagayan provincial information office and the general public to exercise discretion sparingly at all times, and to abide by the provisions of the law,” it said, referring to Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

Several senators backed the new policy but said care must be taken to ensure the data was not misused.

Clear guidelines

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said there should be clear guidelines for the new policy to ensure only relevant information would be disclosed.

“There is a need to narrow down the information needed for disclosure as specifically as possible. [The task force] should also ensure that the needed information is disclosed only to the proper authorities and will not be used for any other purpose, and in accordance with the Data Privacy Act,” she said.

Mechanisms should also be in place to deal with reports of discrimination against confirmed or suspected COVID-19 patients, she added.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the new policy was justified given the need for effective contact tracing, but this did not mean the data should not have certain protections.

“There ought to be safeguards, however, to ensure that the information is shared responsibly and with due regard for privacy rights when warranted,” Pangilinan said.

Sen. Francis Tolentino said that in times of a public health emergency that threatens the life of a nation, the need to protect public health was a ground to limit certain rights.

This is provided for in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Philippines is a signatory, he said.

But he also said there should be a presidential proclamation, and not just a task force resolution, to back up the policy, “considering its constitutional significance [in relation to] policy tradeoffs between data privacy protection and the need to enforce more robust health measures.”

“I support the proposal subject to certain time-bound limitations while respecting the Constitution,” he added.

Plasma donation

Sen. Sonny Angara, a COVID-19 survivor, also said the DOH and local governments should share databases so that they could get in touch with recovered patients and ask them to donate plasma that would be used to help those still under treatment for the disease. (See related story on Page A4.)

Angara himself has donated plasma to help a patient with a severe case of COVID-19.

Angara noted that there was only an informal network of hospitals exchanging notes on survivors willing to donate plasma.

“Agency/institutional action will speed up the process of getting survivors to donate,” he said on Twitter.

Angara recently announced that he had recovered from COVID-19 and was allowed to return home from the hospital.

He is one of three senators who have tested positive for the new coronavirus. The two others are Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri and Aquilino Pimentel III.

—WITH REPORTS FROM JULIE M. AURELIO AND DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN