This
article dissects the limits of the constitutionally recognized right to privacy
and examines the constitutional underpinnings of the right to data protection,
specifically applying the analysis in the context of narco-lists: ‘intelligence reports’, issued by Philippine President
Rodrigo Duterte’s
office, that contain names of public officials allegedly involved in the
narcotics trade. Whether individuals named in the narco-lists would be successful
in asserting the right to privacy against the release of the narco-lists is
uncertain, because of their decreased expectation of privacy, their status as
public figures, and the countervailing rights to be balanced. This article
further conceptualizes the data protection right as a constitutional right:
this right may be asserted by individuals named in the narco-lists; with this
right, individuals should be able to either require the government to comply
with its ex-ante protections or exercise their rights to reasonable access, to
rectification, to erasure or blocking, and to damages.