On October 20, 2023, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Privacy Commission of the Republic of the Philippines focused on their agreement to cooperate for data protection. The MoU includes several noteworthy aspects:

Scope of Collaboration

The MoU outlines various areas of cooperation (within the constraints of their respective laws and without violating national security), including:

• exchange of information regarding investigations; 
• mutual assistance in investigations for contravention of privacy and data protection laws;
• coordination of joint investigations for cross-border data breaches;
• knowledge sharing and training on privacy and data protection trends; and
• exploring innovative and experimental data-sharing approaches.

Both countries, as members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Cross-Border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement (CPEA), agree to share information and cooperate on privacy enforcement to protect data privacy while facilitating information flow across economies, and aim to harmonize regulatory approaches for uniform application of data protection and privacy laws.

Furthermore, the MoU establishes an information-sharing framework but emphasizes that it excludes personal data, also clarifying that there is no legal requirement for cooperation, especially in circumstances that would breach their legal responsibilities.

You can read the MoU here.