Special Counsel
TRINA D. SINGSON (tds@fmh.ph) holds two Master’s Degrees – an MA in International and Business Law obtained from the Yokohama National University, Japan in 2011 and an MA in Industrial Relations obtained from the University of the Philippines in 2003. She received her Bachelor of Laws in 1997 and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1992, both from the University of the Philippines. Ms. Singson is one of the first, if not the first, to have been locally qualified by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) as a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) in the Philippines in 2017. She has also been qualified by the IAPP as a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) in 2018, which is proof of her comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To be fully competent in all aspects of data privacy protection, Ms. Singson also became a Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT) in 2023. The IAPP is the global industry standard for professionals entering and working in the field of privacy.
Before embarking in data privacy practice, she spent years in government service initially, with the National Amnesty Commission and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, then with the Court of Appeals as a Court Attorney for 15 years, and then headed the Secretariat of the Bids and Awards Committee of a leading Metro Manila City.
To gain data privacy competency, she attended data privacy seminars including the “Asia Privacy Forum” held at Marina Bay Sands, Sand Expo and Convention Center in Singapore and the Privacy Global Summit in Washington, DC. She obtained training for Data Protection Officer and CIPM of the IAPP conducted by Straits Interactive Pte Ltd. She also attended the GDPR Training and the Data Privacy Excellence Network Forum in Singapore. She is now updating herself in the impact of Artificial Intelligence on data privacy and protection.
Ms. Singson was a co-chairperson of the IAPP KnowledgeNet Philippine Chapter from 2018 to 2020. The KnowledgeNet, which is facilitated by the IAPP, brings the local privacy community together through educational meetings and networking activities. After her stint with the KnowledgeNet, she continued to volunteer for the IAPP. Since 2020, she has been a member of the IAPP Asia Advisory Board. Upon the IAPP’s invitation, she attended the 2022 Global Summit in Washington, D.C., USA. Her distinct achievement in 2022 was her admission as an IAPP Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP), which is the highest certification awarded by the IAPP.
