BIZ BUZZ: GCG exec takes over NPC
After four years under John Henry Naga’s leadership, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) has a new chief.
On Thursday, the NPC announced that President Marcos Jr. has appointed lawyer Johann Carlos Barcena as the agency’s next commissioner. He will serve a three-year term and is eligible for reappointment.
Barcena was the executive director of the Governance Commission for Government Owned and Controlled Corporations, a policy-making and regulatory body that supervises more than 200 state-run firms.
He holds a political science degree from Ateneo de Manila University and a juris doctor degree from the University of the Philippines.
Barcena is only the third person to lead the NPC since its establishment in 2016 under Republic Act No. 10173, better known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
He succeeds Naga, who was appointed in 2021 and previously served as assistant secretary and then undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
As the government’s privacy watchdog, the NPC enforces data protection laws, oversees compliance across the public and private sectors and ensures safeguards for the handling and storage of personal information.
