Privacy Policy

1Who this policy covers

Barangay Monte Alegre, acting through the Office of the Punong Barangay, is the personal information controller for everything collected on this website. This policy explains how that information is handled, and it applies to you whether you only read these pages or you file a request on them.

It does not cover the other websites you can reach from our links — GOV.PH, the Municipal Government of Kananga, and any national agency page. Each of those publishes its own privacy notice, and once you leave this site you are covered by theirs.

2What we collect

Only what a barangay certificate actually requires. Nothing on this website asks for more than the request itself needs.

This website does not ask for your PhilSys number, your bank details, or your card details, and the barangay will never ask for them by text message or email. Anyone who does is not acting for this office.

The register of inhabitants

Separately from anything filed on this website, the barangay keeps a register of the people who live here — the Record of Barangay Inhabitants that the Local Government Code requires of every barangay secretary. It holds your name, your date and place of birth, your sex and civil status, your occupation, the sitio you live in, how long you have lived here, your household number and who you are in that household, and your contact number and email address if you gave them.

It also has room for three things you may tell the barangay so that it can reach you about the programmes they belong to: your religion, whether you are a person with disability and of which kind, and whether you have told the hall you are pregnant. Every one of these is yours to give or withhold. You are not a senior citizen in this register because anybody ticked a box — that is worked out from your date of birth each time it is needed, so it can never be recorded wrongly and there is nothing about it to keep up to date.

Two things about it are worth stating plainly. It is not collected through this website. Nothing you type into a form on these pages goes into the register; entries are made by barangay staff at the hall, from what you tell them at the counter. And none of it beyond your name, date of birth and sitio is compulsory — a blank is a perfectly good answer, and it is stored as a blank rather than guessed at.

The register is used for the barangay's own work: identifying residents at the counter, reaching households about a programme or an emergency, and counting the population by sitio, by age bracket and by length of residence for planning and reporting. Those counts carry no names. It is not a mailing list, it is not given to candidates or to anyone selling anything, and it leaves the hall only on a lawful written request. Everything in section 9 applies to your entry exactly as it applies to a request: you may ask to see it, correct it, or object to what is in it.

The blotter, and the other records kept about you

Separately again from both of those, the barangay keeps a record of what has passed between it and the people who live here: the blotter every barangay is required to keep, complaints brought to the hall, cases taken up by the Lupong Tagapamayapa and how they ended, summonses issued, referrals to other offices, and assistance given. Where one of those concerns you, an entry is written against your name — what kind of entry it is, the day and place it happened, what part you had in it, who else was named, what was reported, and what the barangay did about it.

None of this is collected through this website either, and none of it is public. It is written by barangay staff from what is reported at the hall. It is read only by staff who have signed in to the records system, and every time one of these entries is opened, the system writes down who opened it and when. Nothing in it is ever deleted. An entry written in error is struck out — ruled through, with the reason and the date beside it — and stays legible, because a book you can quietly take a page out of is worth as little to the person it clears as to the person it accuses.

Two rules the barangay is already under limit what may be done with it, and they are worth stating here rather than leaving in the statute books. Proceedings before the Lupon are confidential and may not be used as evidence in any other case. And where a child is involved, the record is privileged: it does not go over the counter to a neighbour, an employer or a school, and it is released only to the child, their parents or guardian, and the officers the law names. If you want to know what the barangay holds against your name, ask at the hall — section 10 says how. It is answered by a person rather than by this website, deliberately: there is no reference number and no link that opens somebody's blotter, because anything that could open yours could open a stranger's.

3Why we collect it

We use what you give us for these purposes and no others:

• to receive, verify and act on your request;
• to reach you about it — this website sends you an email at each stage of your request if you gave an address, and staff may call or text the mobile number you gave if something in your record needs correcting or your document is waiting;
• to answer you — if you reply to one of those emails, your reply is kept with your request so whoever is handling it can read what you wrote and write back;
• to prepare, sign and release the certificate itself;
• to keep the record of issuance that the barangay is required to keep; and
• to count requests by type and by purok for planning and reporting. Those counts carry no names.

We process it on three of the criteria the Act allows: your consent, given when you tick the declaration on the request form; compliance with a legal obligation of the barangay; and the fulfilment of the functions of a public authority, since issuing clearances and certifications is part of the barangay's mandate.

4Sensitive personal information

Some of what a certificate needs is sensitive personal information as the Act defines it — your civil status, the number on your government-issued ID, and the household circumstances behind a Certificate of Indigency. We ask for it only where the certificate itself requires it, we process it on your consent and on the laws that provide for its processing, and it is seen only by the officers who act on your request.

Three fields in the register of inhabitants are sensitive personal information too: your religion, a disability recorded against your name, and a pregnancy you have told the hall about. The last two are health information by any reading, and they are held for one reason — the barangay is asked, constantly, for the list of residents a particular programme is meant to reach, and a hall that cannot answer that from its own register answers it by going door to door instead.

All three are yours to give or withhold. Staff are instructed to record “not stated” without asking twice; nothing you can obtain from this barangay depends on any of the three; a disability is recorded as the category on your PWD ID and never as a diagnosis, because the barangay has no business holding one; and a pregnancy is kept as the date you told us rather than as a standing fact, so that an entry nobody has been back to check reads as out of date instead of as true. You may have any of them removed from your entry at any time by asking — see section 10.

The blotter and the other records described in section 2 are sensitive personal information in their own right, and the Act says so in as many words: any proceeding for an offence a person has committed or is alleged to have committed, and how that proceeding was disposed of, sits in the same category as your religion and your health. That is why those entries are behind a staff sign-in with no exception, why opening one is written into the barangay’s own activity log, and why nothing about them appears anywhere on this website — not to you, not to anybody, and not against a reference number.

5Cookies and browser storage

This website sets no advertising cookies, runs no analytics, and does not follow you to other websites.

It does use your own browser's storage, and on your first visit it asks you which parts of that you agree to. Two answers are offered and neither is buried: Allow and Only what's necessary. Whichever you choose is written down on your device so you aren't asked again, including if you refuse. You can change your mind at any time from Cookie choices, in the rule at the foot of every page.

Kept whichever you choose. The address of the picture file the barangay's seal is drawn from, so the seal doesn't have to be fetched again on every page. It identifies nobody: it is the same address for every visitor, and holds no name, number or record of where you have been.

Kept only if you allow it. When you file a request, a copy of the reference number and the type of certificate is kept on the device you filed from, so the tracker on the request page can find your request without you retyping anything. If you refuse, or later withdraw, nothing is kept and any copy already held is deleted — the reference number shown on your confirmation is then the only one, which is why that screen tells you to save it. Filing at the hall is not affected either way, and neither is the request itself: it is transmitted to the barangay's records system, where Section 7 governs how long it is kept.

Loaded only if you allow it. If the barangay has turned on the CAPTCHA check on the request form, Google's reCAPTCHA sets a cookie on that page to tell an automated submission apart from a resident's. It is the only thing on this site belonging to someone else, so it does not load until you say so, and the request form asks you there rather than making you go and find this page. It runs only on the request form and only while you're filling it out. If you would rather not allow it, the form cannot be sent online — file at the hall instead, where no check is needed.

One cookie exists on this site that is not covered by any of the above: the sign-in cookie of the staff dashboard. It is strictly necessary — it is what being signed in is — it is set only for barangay personnel who sign in, it expires ten minutes after that dashboard was last used, and it is never set by the public pages.

Two things on these pages are served by others whatever you choose, because they are the page itself rather than something added to it: the typefaces come from Google Fonts and the scrolling script from the jsDelivr network. Both receive your IP address as part of delivering the file, in the same way any website you visit does. Neither sets a cookie.

6Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information and we do not release it for any commercial or political purpose. It is disclosed only:

• to the barangay officials and staff who act on your request — the secretary who verifies it, the treasurer who receives the fee, and the punong barangay who signs it;
• to your purok leader or barangay health worker, where residency or indigency has to be validated;
• to offices of the Municipal Government of Kananga, where the certificate forms part of a city transaction you yourself asked for;
• to a court, the Philippine National Police, or another government body, when a subpoena, court order, or law requires it; and
• to the National Privacy Commission, in connection with a complaint or a breach notification.

Running an online service also means entrusting parts of it to service providers. They act only on the barangay's instructions, under contract, and for no purpose of their own:

These providers operate servers outside the Philippines, so acting on your request involves a transfer of your data abroad. The barangay remains accountable for it under Section 21 of the Act, and requires each provider to give it protection comparable to what this policy promises.

7How long we keep it

Requests and the documents filed with them form part of the barangay's records, and the periods below are enforced by the site itself — a scheduled job runs every night and disposes of what has fallen due. Nothing here waits for someone to remember.

• The photograph of your ID: thirty (30) days after your request is released or declined, or thirty (30) days after the barangay archives it, whichever comes first. It is only there so the hall can confirm the request is yours, and that purpose ends when you collect the document. It is deleted from storage entirely, not merely detached from your record.
• The request itself: five (5) years from the day it was released or declined, after which the record and everything filed with it is deleted. The emails we sent you about it, and any reply you sent back, are kept with the request and go when it goes.
• A request the barangay has archived: two (2) years from the day it was archived. Archiving is how hall staff mark a request the barangay has finished with — one that has been released, or a duplicate, an entry made in error, or a request nobody pursued. An archived request is still your record: everything in section 9 applies to it exactly as before, and staff can return it to the working logbook at any time before the two years are up.
• A request that is still open is not disposed of on the schedule's own initiative, however old it is. Records still needed for an ongoing case, audit, or investigation are kept until that matter is closed. The single exception is an open request that has been archived, which falls under the two-year period above — that takes a decision by a named member of staff, and the decision is recorded.

The register of inhabitants is not on this schedule, and deliberately so. A request has a purpose that is spent when the certificate goes out; living in the barangay is not a transaction that completes, and no period would mean anything measured against it. Your entry is kept for as long as you are an inhabitant. A recorded pregnancy is the one thing in it that does go out of date on its own, which is why it is kept as the day it was written down: the register shows it as needing checking rather than carrying it forward as though it were still true. When you move away or the barangay is told of a death, the entry is taken off the working register — it stops being counted in any total, and it is marked with the reason and the date — and what becomes of it after that is governed by the barangay's records disposition schedule and not by this website. You may ask to have your entry corrected or erased at any time, on the same terms as everything else here.

The blotter and the records kept about you are not on this schedule either, and for a different reason again: those are the barangay’s own books, and what becomes of a book is governed by the records disposition schedule approved for it by the National Archives of the Philippines. Nothing in them is deleted by this website or on any clock this website keeps. An entry written in error is struck out and stays legible — see section 2.

Five years, and two years for archived requests, are the periods the barangay currently applies. The sangguniang barangay may adopt different ones under a records disposition schedule approved by the National Archives of the Philippines, and this notice is amended when it does. You may also ask us to erase your record sooner — see section 9.

8How we protect it

The Act requires reasonable and appropriate organizational, physical and technical measures. Ours are these:

• Organizational. Only officials and staff whose work requires it may see a request. Everyone handling personal data is briefed on this policy and on the Act, and is bound to confidentiality even after leaving office.
• Physical. Paper files and printed attachments are kept in locked cabinets at the barangay hall, and the office is closed and secured outside working hours.
• Technical. The website is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), and so is the upload of your ID photograph, which travels straight from your phone to the storage provider without passing through any other server. That photograph is stored as a private file: it has no public address, and it opens only through a link that expires. Access to the request records is limited to staff who sign in, and devices used for barangay work are password-protected.

No safeguard is absolute, and we do not claim otherwise. What we do undertake is to act on any incident promptly and to tell you when the law says you must be told.

9Your rights

As a data subject under the Act, you have the right:

• To be informed that your personal data is being or has been collected and processed, and why.
• To object to the processing, including processing for a purpose you were not told about.
• To access the personal data we hold about you, and to be told where we got it, who we gave it to, and how it was used.
• To rectification — to have anything inaccurate or incomplete corrected, and to have the correction passed on to anyone we already gave the data to.
• To erasure or blocking of data that is incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained, or no longer necessary.
• To damages for any inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained or unauthorized use of your personal data.
• To data portability — to obtain a copy of the data you gave us, in an electronic format that is structured and commonly used.
• To lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.

These rights are transmissible to your lawful heirs and assigns. They are also not absolute: where a record must be kept because a law, an audit, or a pending case requires it, we will tell you why we cannot erase it and what we can do instead.

10How to exercise them

Write to the barangay's Data Protection Officer, or come to the hall during office hours and ask for them by name. Bring or attach a valid ID so we can be sure we are answering the right person.

We answer within fifteen (15) calendar days of receiving a request. If the records have to be retrieved from the archive and that will take longer, we will tell you so, and tell you how much longer, within the same fifteen days.

11Requests filed for another person

If you file on behalf of someone else, you must have their written authority, and you must bring a copy of their valid ID along with your own. By filing, you confirm that you have told them what this policy says.

A request for a person below eighteen (18) years of age is filed by a parent or guardian, who gives consent on their behalf.

12Personal data breaches

If a breach occurs that is likely to give rise to a real risk of serious harm, we will notify the National Privacy Commission and every affected data subject within seventy-two (72) hours of knowing about it, and we will say plainly what happened, what data was involved, and what you should do.

13Where to complain

Bring it to our Data Protection Officer first — most matters are settled fastest at the hall. If you are not satisfied with how we handled it, you may complain to the National Privacy Commission.

14Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, the new version is posted here with a new effective date. If the change affects how we use information we already hold, it is also posted on the bulletin board at the barangay hall and announced in the bulletin on this website.