THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said its memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Pilipinas Teleserv Inc. (Teleserv) was terminated due to data breaches.
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis S. Mapa told reporters two cases have been filed against PSA at the National Privacy Commission (NPC) due to data breaches.
Mapa said upon learning about reports that birth certificates were being obtained via social media, the PSA investigated and found that the “weak” link in their privacy controls was Teleserv.
“When we stopped, accounts on Facebook announced they are stopping their operations because Teleserv was stopped. So it validates that their control is weaker than ours. And we cannot have that data privacy breach primarily because we are in the National ID and that is our commitment,” Mapa said
Mapa said, however, that the termination of the contract will not affect PSA’s ability to provide online services. He said PSA Serbilis outlets are ready to provide the same service without the threat of data breaches.
He said the PSA plans to open 15 more Serbilis outlets this year. Mapa said these outlets will include Tarlac and Bohol to allow residents there to process their PSA needs without leaving their province.
Based on PSA’s data, it processed a total of 22.6 million documents in 2019. Transactions made via Teleserv only accounted for 6.5 percent of the total.
Mapa said Teleserv used to process 5,000 to 6,000 documents per day, while the PSA Serbilis processes 1,500 to 2,000 documents per day. But since the PSA terminated Teleserv, PSA Serbilis is now processing 5,000 to 6,000 documents per day.
“I will answer if Congress will summon us, there’s no problem with that. In terms of volume there’s no problem since my estimate is that… for both [PSA Serbilis and Teleserv] of them, they are accommodating maybe 7,000 to 8,000 per day. Right now, the last time I checked, since I can access the daily volume, they’re at 5,000 to 6,000. There was already an increase,” Mapa explained.
One of the two cases filed, Mapa said, had to do with a third party being able to obtain birth certificates of somebody else’s children.
Mapa said when they learned about the problems, PSA warned Teleserv regarding the possibility of terminating the MOA, which they eventually did on December 20, 2019.
The MOA was signed by former Chief Civil Registrars Tomas Africa and Carmelita Ericta, as well as former National Statistician Lisa Grace Bersales.
Mapa said the MOA between the government and Teleserv did not specify Key Performance Indicators that can be used to measure its performance. This, he said, may have led to the data breaches.
“The MOA already existed when I arrived. I was just checking what are the controls that they’re doing and apparently [these were] weak,” Mapa said.
In the first week of January, PSA announced that Teleserv is no longer authorized to receive requests for civil registry documents from any party.
Any transaction made with Teleserv through PSA Helpline Plus will not be honored by PSA. However, online requests for civil registry documents is still available through the PSA Serbilis.