March 16, 2022
Malacañan appointed a private lawyer and former Dapitan City Councilor Atty. Dug Christopher B. Mah as the new Deputy Privacy Commissioner of the National Privacy Commission (NPC), effective March 2022. The NPC also welcomed newly appointed Directors, Atty. Franklin Anthony Tabaquin IV for the Privacy Policy Office and Atty. Aubin Arn Nieva for Data Security and Compliance Office.
Privacy Commissioner John Henry D. Naga and Deputy Privacy Commissioner Leandro Angelo Y. Aguirre greeted Mah, Tabaquin, Nieva, and their respective teams to the NPC in an oath-taking ceremony held on March 09, 2022.
“The NPC is delighted to have our newly appointed Deputy Commissioner Dug Christopher Mah and directors, Atty. Franklin Anthony Tabaquin IV and Atty. Aubin Arn Nieva, join the Commission’s endeavor towards an effective and efficient enforcement of the Data Privacy Act. I am confident that with their knowledge and expertise, they will be an asset to the Commission and aid us in pursuing the NPC’s goal of empowering our data subjects and stakeholders, as well as to strengthen their compliance with the data privacy law,” Naga said.
“The NPC is geared towards a pro-data subject approach, upholding data subject rights, most importantly the vulnerable sector of the society, and recalibrating companies’ and organizations’ role as personal information controllers and processors,” the privacy chief added.
The New Deputy Commissioner
Deputy Commissioner Mah served as City Councilor of Dapitan City from 2013 to 2022 and was in the Board of Directors of the Rural Bank of Rizal (ZN), Inc. in Dipolog City from 2007 to last year. He is a certified public accountant and a graduate of the University of San Carlos.
He obtained his law degree from the University of San Jose Recoletos in 2005 and was subsequently admitted to the Philippine Bar the following year. After passing the Bar, he entered private law practice and handled criminal, land dispute, corporate, and labor cases.
New Directors
Atty. Tabaquin, IV began his government service as a staff attorney of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC). He advised the OGCC and key Government-owned or -Controlled corporations (GOCCs) on the formulation of data privacy regulations and was appointed as data privacy officer.
He obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from the San Beda University – Mendiola and was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 2007. He has been an advocate for adopting Technology Law in the government sector, where he spearheaded digitization efforts and awareness seminars/training in data privacy among GOCCs.
Prior to his appointment at the NPC, Atty. Nieva served in the Department of Information and Communications Technology for more than three years in various capacities. In 2017, Atty. Nieva acted as the Deputy Chief-of-Staff to former DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo Rio, Jr.
In 2019, he was designated as the Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, and as Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Development and Innovations in concurrent capacity. In the same year, he served as the department’s data privacy officer.
Atty. Nieva obtained his law degree and a bachelor’s degree in International Business and Entrepreneurial Management from San Beda University – Manila, where he graduated with academic distinction and as class valedictorian.
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