Privacy commission: Stop unwarranted profiling of community pantry organizers

MANILA, Philippines — The National Privacy Commission on Thursday called for a stop to the “unjust” and “unwarranted” profiling of community pantry organizers that has sown fear and has prompted some to stop operations.

Two days after Privacy Commissioner Raymund Enriquez Liboro reminded police to be mindful of lawfully collecting personal data, the commission on Wednesday issued a statement “[denouncing] in the strongest terms any act of unjust profiling of community pantry organizers.”

“We have always been firm in our stand that unjust profiling activities are unwelcome due to risks it entails to our citizens, such as discrimination and stereotyping,” Liboro added.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has also said that interrogating community pantry organizers is improper unless there is reason to believe that they violated a law, ordinance, rule or regulation.

Despite these statements, an ABS-CBN tweet report on Wednesday said Non learned from other volunteers that police had also been asking for her address and even if she is single.

In a separate message, Guevarra said profilingviolatio could be a violation of the Data Privacy Act. But this would “depend on the kind of personal data obtained without the consent of the person concerned, and the purpose of which the data was obtained,” he added.

Parlade’s red-tagging

Privacy commissioner Liboro also expressed “grave concern” over Parlade’s statement where the controversial military official likened Ana Patricia Non, organizer of the pioneering Maginhawa community pantry, to Satan and how the biblical figure deceived people.

“That’s one person, Anna, Patricia, right? Same with Satan. Satan gave apple to Eve. That’s where it started, it all started there,” Parlade, spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said in a mix of English and Filipino.

The general claimed on Thursday his comments, which were from an interview on ONE News, were misinterpreted.

Liboro pointed out that labelling that Parlade used is unnecessary especially when people are struggling and community pantry organizers are considered “heroes” for their selfless acts.

He added that due to “the unwarranted profiling activities” of community pantry organizers, “they have been discouraged from continuing this activity because of red-tagging.”

“It is during these trying times that we should not, by any means, fuel discrimination against anyone who has done nothing to deserve as such. We must aim to build a united community driven by volunteerism with genuine desire to help others and the needy,” Liboro also said.

Fear due to profiling shuts community pantry

A community pantry in Pandacan, Manila folded due to the organizer’s fear for her family. Marikit Arellano posted on the Community Pantry PH group that they filled out a form handed by police on Monday.

Arellano said they did not know they can refuse to answer the form.

RELATED: What to do if law enforcers visit your community pantry? Diokno offers tips

She noted that the police visitation happened before Manila Mayor Isko Moreno stated that community pantries are allowed in Manila.

This is not the first time that police are accused of profiling. In March, Calbayog police asked the local court for names of lawyers representing “communist terrorist groups.”

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