The House Committee on Public Accounts chaired by ABANG LINGKOD Party-list Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano, in a joint hearing with the Special Committee on Senior Citizens chaired by SENIOR CITIZENS Party-list Representative Rodolfo Ordanes, continued its inquiry on the status and operations of, as well as alleged mismanagement, anomalies, and irregularities in the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC).
The inquiry is based on House Resolution 326 filed by Ordanes and his privilege speech delivered on the floor on August 31, 2022.
In his opening remarks, Paduano shared his observations from the previous hearings.
These include issues on the budget expenditure of the NCSC in 2021; the qualifications of Commissioner Reymar Mansilungan; and the nomination of Irene Dumlao as executive director of NCSC by then President Rodrigo Duterte which was disregarded by the majority of the commissioners, among others.
During the interpellation, SAGIP Party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta asked if the NCSC had deputized senior citizens associations to collect sensitive personal information from prospective potential members of senior organizations.
“You have to be very careful about the collection, the processing, the storage and the security of this data.”
“If you’re familiar with the privacy law, you have to be very careful about the collection, the processing, the storage and the security of this data knowing the importance of this sensitive information,” Marcoleta said.
NCSC Chairman Atty. Franklin Quijano said the data they were asking was online but there were senior citizens who would not know how to fill up the registration online.
“They got the data from our website and have printed it. Yun lang po ang nangyari.”
“They got the data from our website and have printed it. Yun lang po ang nangyari,” Quijano explained.
He added they conferred with Philippine Statistics Authority and their website is registered properly with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
The panel held an executive session after suspending the hearing.
