PASIG CITY – Pasig City has officially established a national benchmark for healthcare privacy with Executive Order No. PCG-24, Series of 2026, “An Executive Order Instituting the Safe Data Environment and Exchange Policy for the City-Wide Health System of Pasig, and for Other Purposes,” signed on 13 April 2025. The policy was developed through technical assistance from the Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC) of the Dr Rosita G Leong School of Social Sciences – Ateneo de Manila University, supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD).
The SDEEx policy establishes a mandatory regulatory framework for all city-managed health data, positioning Pasig City as a pioneering city for digital health in the country. It is considered as one of its foundational policies on data protection and serves as the governance backbone to consolidate citizen registries and optimize health service delivery for the Pasig City Smarter and Integrated Local Health Information System (SMILHIS).
By adopting the internationally recognised “Five Safes” framework, the city ensures that data is managed through Safe Settings, Safe Data, Safe People, Safe Projects, and Safe Outputs. Under these pillars, health data access is restricted to verified, trained personnel, with all data leaving the secure environment aggregated and non-identifiable.
Moreover, the policy stipulates the drafting of a protocol adhering to the principles of data minimisation, de-identification, and re-identification to safeguard the privacy of service users and their records in health information exchanges across the Pasig City healthcare provider network (HCPN). As such, the policy stipulates the signing of a multi-party data sharing agreement (DSA) for all departments, offices, and/or units exchanging data to ensure that adequate safeguards for data privacy and security are put in place.
Development of the SDEEx framework is rooted in years of collaboration and expert consultation with local as well as international partners and represents a unique global-local synthesis. Dr Batangan, research scientist of IPC and lead of the eMHPRE UHC project, was first introduced to the Safe Data Environment (SDE) framework in 2021 through interactions with the UK National Health Service (NHS). The framework template was further refined to include de-identification and re-identification protocols in 2023, following consultations with digital health professionals attending the Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics (APAMI) conference in Manila.
While the “Safe Data Environment” (SDE) protocols are already a recognised international benchmark utilised globally, Pasig City is the first in the Philippines to adopt it and has innovated further by adding a critical “exchange” layer through the SMILHIS interoperability engine. The latter enables secure, standardised data flows instead of isolation. This unique framework transforms the secure environment into a more dynamic network that facilitates interoperable health information sharing, such as digital referrals, and ensures seamless continuity of care across the HCPN.
As Pasig City moves from simple data collection to more actionable “health intelligence,” the SDEEx policy ensures that citizen trust remains at the center of every digital interaction. By institutionalising safeguards, the city is proving that technology for faster health services can and must go hand-in-hand with the highest standards of data privacy.