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VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go talks about data sovereignty during the CXO Tech Summit in Boracay, Malay, Aklan on Oct. 16,  2025. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News

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VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go

Arthur Fuentes

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1760863443893VST ECS Jimmy Go 10192025.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go talks about data sovereignty during the CXO Tech Summit in Boracay, Malay, Aklan on Oct. 16, 2025. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News"/>VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go talks about data sovereignty during the CXO Tech Summit in Boracay, Malay, Aklan on Oct. 16,  2025. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News </div>BORACAY, Aklan -- An IT industry player is backing proposals to set up local data centers to entice more tech companies to invest in the Philippines.During the last day of the CXO Tech Summit in Boracay, VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go, again pushed for data sovereignty or the use of local data centers to process and store data generated or used in a particular country, so that the data is subject to that country&#x27;s laws.Go said other countries in Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, already have laws on data sovereignty or data localization.&quot;So, what does it bring to the country? So, companies like Google, Microsoft, AWS, all the hyperscalers are investing in their respective countries. So, what we are missing in the Philippines is that those big hyperscalers, those big data centers are not investing in the Philippines,&quot; Go said.The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier said it is pushing to build local data centers to reduce the Philippines&#x27; reliance on foreign cloud services. The DICT said 90 percent of government data is stored abroad, mostly in Singapore, costing taxpayers around P12 billion annually. A lawmaker, who sponsored the DICT&#x27;s proposed budget, said the use of foreign data centers also exposes the government to security risks.Go aid that a law on data sovereignty will also result in increased foreign direct investments in the Philippines.&quot;So, if the data sovereignty law is approved, there will be more FDI, there will be more jobs for the Filipino people,&quot; Go said.Amid concerns that the Philippines&#x27; high cost of power may make local data centers more expensive to operate, Go noted that Singapore has higher power costs than the Philippines but remains very attractive for data center operators.&quot;Yes, there will be a requirement for more power, more energy, and maybe there&#x27;s more investment on the green energy as well. So, the overall change is going to be very positive for the country,&quot; Go said.The DICT is seeking P2.5 billion for the construction of three major data centers, with a long-term plan to establish nine facilities worth P7.5 billion.Foreign data center operators however have raised concerns over the move towards data sovereignty. The Global Data Alliance, said requiring data to be stored locally will not inherently increase its security.It said that leading cloud service providers have sophisticated, globally distributed security architectures that operate on a &quot;shared responsibility model&quot;.&quot;Mandating localization could force Philippine government agencies off these highly secure global platforms and onto smaller, less-resourced local infrastructures, which ironically creates a more attractive and vulnerable target for cyberattacks than a resilient, global cloud architecture,&quot; the GDA said in position paper released in September this year.The DICT meanwhile has said that investing P7.5 billion in nine data centers over three years was cheaper than relying on foreign cloud services that cost P12 billion each year.

VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go said other countries in Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, already have laws on data sovereignty or data localization.

VST ECS President and CEO Jimmy Go said other countries in Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, already have laws on data sovereignty or data localization.

Industry player pushes for setting up PH data centers for data sovereignty

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Industry player pushes for setting up PH data centers for data sovereignty

Arthur Fuentes,

ABS-CBN News

Published Oct 19, 2025 04:48 PM PHT

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Updated Oct 19, 2025 05:05 PM PHT

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data sovereignty

CXO Tech Summit 2025

Boracay

hyperscalers

IT infrastructure

VST ECS

Jimmy Go

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