The newsletters and articles published on this website are for academic and general reference purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For further queries on any topic discussed, you may contact the De Guzman San Diego Mejia Hernandez Law Offices (GSMH Law) by phone (02)8511.0908 or email counsel@gsmhlaw.com.

GSMH Law is bounded by professional ethics, as outlined in the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (A.M. No. 22-09-01-SC). We ensure that any information relayed to us and advice given thereon in the course of, or with a view to, professional employment shall be kept privileged and confidential. This includes communications undertaken in person, through telephone or mobile phone, or through electronic messaging, such as emails, our social media accounts, and other online instant messaging platforms. In addition, we undertake to maintain, respect, and protect your privacy in accordance with our Data Privacy Policy.

Our Data Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

GSMH Law is committed to protect and respect your privacy by collecting and processing your personal information and sensitive personal information in accordance with applicable data privacy laws and regulations including the Data Privacy Act (“DPA”) and its implementing rules and regulations (“DPA IRR”).

This Policy explains that manner and purpose for which GSMH Law collects and processes your personal data whenever we collect personal data from you either through this website, through our emails and social media channels, or through publicly facing data processing systems, including in our reception areas, attendance sheets, or registration forms collected in any of our events or face-to-face meetings with us.

Information We Collect

In providing our legal services, GSMH Law may collect, store, and process personal information. The personal information we collect and process may include:

  1. name, address, email address and telephone and mobile numbers;
  2. marital status, age, birthdate;
  3. political affiliations;
  4. details of any offenses committed or alleged to have been committed by any such person, the disposal of such proceedings, or the sentence of any court in such proceedings; and
  5. government issued identification number and details, such as social security numbers, tax identification numbers, and passport details; and
  6. other personal information provided to us in connection with legal services we provide.

Why We Collect Your Data

The personal information we collect are manually and/or electronically used, stored, recorded, or otherwise processed exclusively, for purposes of:

  1. Performing conflicts checks to determine if we can handle the engagement;
  2. Providing legal advice and rendering legal services;
  3. Complying with court orders and other legal and regulatory requirements
  4. Acting in compliance with our legal obligations, including with respect to anti-money laundering;
  5. Internal purposes, which includes processing payments, accounting, auditing, billing and collection and related support services, and managing and securing the access to our offices, systems and online platforms; and
  6. Performing any other task or service related to the foregoing or for any purpose for which you provided your personal information.

GSMH Law may collect personal data directly from you or your organization when you or your organization:

  1. seek legal advice and/or enter into agreement with us to avail of our legal services;
  2. access, browse, visit, use, or contact us through our website and other online or social media platform; or
  3. e-mail us or provide such personal information to us in other circumstances, such as when you request details about or attend a firm-sponsored event.

Security Measures, Data Storage, and Data Retention

GSMH Law ensures that the necessary and appropriate security measures against unauthorized or unlawful processing of your personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, your personal data. 

GSMH Law will transmit to you the data we gathered and delete your personal data when it is no longer reasonably required for the above purpose or in such cases were you can withdraw your consent to the collection of the collected. We note, however, that we may retain your personal data for an additional period to the extent we deem it necessary to assert or defend legal claims during any relevant retention period.

Your Data Privacy Rights

The DPA provides that the following rights a data subject has over their personal information:

  1. Right to Be Informed
  2. Right to Object
  3. Right to Access
  4. Right to Rectification
  5. Right to Erasure or Blocking
  6. Right to Damages
  7. Right to Portability.

Web Traffic Data and Use of Cookies

Cookies are small data files that we write to your device whenever you visit our website. We use cookies to aid in this website’s functionality and ensure good user experience.

You may opt not to receive cookies by disabling them in your browser’s settings. By doing this, however, you may limit the functionality of this website.

This website may contain external links to websites of other government agencies, our partner firms under the ASEAN Legal Alliance, or other private institutions. Should you choose to use these external links and leave our website, please note that we have no control over the data collection and use of cookies in these websites.

This website uses WordPress Statistics, a third-party service, to analyze our web traffic data, help us determine this website’s engagement, and improve our services and features. The following web traffic data may be processed for this purpose:

  • Your IP address
  • The pages and internal links you accessed on our site
  • The date and time you visited our site
  • The referring site or platform through which you accessed this site
  • Your operating system and web browser type (whether mobile or desktop)

Changes to the Privacy Notice

GSMH Law reserves the right to update or revise this privacy notice at any time and will provide a new privacy notice whenever there are substantial changes. Prior versions of thew privacy notice shall be retained by GSMH Law and shall be provided to data subjects upon request.