Govt to roll out natl ID system in Sept
Credit to Author: ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES| Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:27:08 +0000
The Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) or the national ID system will be implemented next month on a limited scale, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said on Tuesday.
“We are going to start doing the pilot test on September 2, and the pilot test will cover a not so big number of registrants,” Pernia said during the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines economic briefing in Manila. He said 5,000 to 10,000 individuals would be served during the initial roll-out of the ID system.
“Pilot test of the National ID registration process [will be] for recipients of CCT (conditional cash transfer), UCT (unconditional cash transfer), seniors and some government employees to check if the process works well before ramping it up exponentially to cover more registrants,” he said.
If all goes well, Pernia said the program could cover 50 million in 2020 and another 50 million in 2021.
“As long as the pilot test show that we are implementing the national ID the right way, then it can be ramped up starting next year so that we will be able to cover 50 million registrants and then the following year, another 50 million so that by the end of this administration, we could cover virtually all Filipinos, including OFWs (oversear Filipino workers) and resident aliens,” he said.
The PhilSys Act was signed into law in August 2018. The system aims to unify all government IDs into one.
“This will facilitate transactions between citizens and government, between citizens and the private sector, and between government and the private sector,” Pernia explained.
Despite the numerous IDs issued by the Philippine government, 14 percent of Filipinos are denied government and financial services for lack of proper identification documents.
“Having one national ID will strengthen financial inclusion by reducing the cost of transactions through easier authentication procedures.
This way, the marginalized will have easier, faster access to public programs,” Pernia said.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Benjamin Diokno said his agency would print the national ID.
“The BSP has volunteered to print the ID so as not to delay the printing because if you bid this out, the losing bidders will challenge the winning bidders, it will go all the way to court, it could take years so we volunteered, we will print it, it’s a government to government contract,” Diokno said.