The right to privacy

THE right to privacy has recently been invoked several times in the argument against the recent revenue issuances by the Bureau of Internal Revenue imposing disclosure requirements in amending the tax forms required to be filed by every taxpayer.

This included Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 57-2011, which has already been rectified and amended by Revenue Regulation No. 19-2011. Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 57-2011 required taxpayers to reveal additional information about their other sources of income.

With this background, we examine the legal basis of the right to privacy of every individual.

The essence of privacy is the “right to be let alone.” [Cooley on Torts, Sec. 135, vol. 1, 4th ed., [1932]; see also Warren and Brandeis, “The Right to Privacy,” 4 Harvard Law Review 193-220 [1890] — this article greatly influenced the enactment of privacy statutes in the United States (Cortes, I., The Constitutional Foundations of Privacy, p. 15 [1970])].

In the American case of Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 14 L. ed. 2d 510 (1965), the United States Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy has a constitutional foundation. In the case of Morfe v. Mutuc, 22 SCRA 424, the Philippine Supreme Court adopted the Griswold ruling that there is a constitutional right to privacy. The court held:

“Griswold invalidated a Connecticut statute which made the use of contraceptives a criminal offense on the ground of its amounting to an unconstitutional invasion of the right of privacy of married persons; rightfully it stressed a relationship lying within the zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees. It has wider implications though. The constitutional right to privacy has come into its own.”

The right to privacy is enshrined in several provisions of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. We quote Section 3(1) of the Bill of Rights as follows:

“Sec. 3. (1) The privacy of communication and correspondence shall be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order requires otherwise as prescribed by law.”

The right to privacy is also heavily protected in various provisions of the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, namely:

“Sec. 1. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.

Sec. 2. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures of whatever nature and for any purpose shall be inviolable, and no search warrant or warrant of arrest shall issue except upon probable cause to be determined personally by the judge after examination under oath or affirmation of the complainant and the witnesses he may produce, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. Xxx”

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