Data drives development and is an effective policy-making instrument to bring about democratic and inclusive governance, according to the D4DAsia Synthesis Report released on Friday by LIRNEasia, together with the Data for Development Asia Hub (D4DHub), the Open Development Initiative of EWMI, and the Senar Project, with Disini Law and the Digital Freedom Network.

The report reviewed and analyzed laws, policies, and initiatives affecting data governance practices in South and Southeast Asia, including recommendations to improve data governance frameworks in the region and beyond.

Seven countries, namely India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Philippines, participated in the preliminary study.

The Constitution guarantees the right to information on matters of public concern, but access via the Internet remains a hurdle. There is no synthesis between the Open Data Portal (which promotes open standards or public data) and other government online databases such as the OpenStat of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The Philippines does not have a specific government policy preferring open software and standards, and no such legislation is currently under deliberation. There are also no specific general standards relevant to systems' interconnectivity, data integration, e-services access, and content management. Furthermore, there is no law comprehensively governing data localization.

The country's laws have yet to fully consider the implications of data generated by Artificial Intelligence. For one, copyright law specifically recognizes copyright to a "natural person" but not works purely generated by non-humans.

"Our report presents gaps in our country's strategy on data governance. In highlighting them, we hope to encourage policy-makers and data managers to influence our political leaders to make the necessary legislation to plug these holes soonest," said Prof. Jesus Disini Jr., associate professor at the University of the Philippines College of Law.

For his part, Prof. Oliver Xavier Reyes of UP College of Law said, "Data is an asset and robust data governance is a key to advantage in policy-making, especially in the public sector where decisions could impact one way or the other on people's lives and their livelihood."

Reyes, however, emphasized that there are specific aspects of data that are regulated by laws with a very specific context.

"For example, data privacy. So data privacy is personal information. Information that is able to identify specific individuals. And of course, we have privacy rights," Reyes told reporters during a press conference at Westin Manila in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City.

"However, data is not just personal information. There are also a lot of data which do not cover personal information. In fact, those who transact in data but do not want to deal with personal information, they do it anonymously. Once they get the data, they will remove the names, the specific information that can be identified by a particular person," Reyes added.