Senators to NEDA, PSA, national ID?
By Nidz Godino
"Who has an ID in this room…we don't have it…how do we know we can have our national ID that is ready to be downloaded?" Sen. Sonny Angara asked, noting PSA is expected to complete all physical national IDs by September 2024 where is the national ID?
Question posed by some senators to officials of National Economic and Development Authority and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during Senate public hearing on agencies' proposed budget for 2024 presided over by Angara.
Angara, chairman of Senate committee on finance, asked those present at the public hearing who already have their national IDs as he has yet to get his.
For his part, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian lamented that while identification has been expanded to accept barangay clearance, PWD and senior citizens IDs, cleaning process of these cards is still not regular as not all LGUs clean up their database.
"Most logical is to use national ID… original intention of national ID is to have foolproof and universal ID that everyone can use… high tech, based on biometrics and no one can replicate …I understand problem in producing and delivering cards and also giving ID to constituents.," Gatchalian added.
PSA chief Dennis Mapa said about 81 million Filipinos have already registered with national ID, with 39.7 million physical IDs delivered to owners while 40.8 million or half of those registered have digital or e-Phil ID.
PSA official said digital national ID could still be used in some transactions like banks. He noted that there are three modes to produce national IDs – physical cards, printed on paper and in cellular phones.
Gatchalian said national ID is not yet accepted at Land Bank of the Philippines even though they are government bank.
Mapa have coordinated and requested Landbank branches to honor national IDs in bank transactions.
Government expects to complete delivery of physical ID cards of those who have registered with Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) by September next year, PSA said.
"Based on their schedule as they presented to us, they will clear everything by September 2024," Mapa said, noting that PSA has registered 81 million Filipinos in national ID system or 81 percent of country's population aged five years and above.
While ePhilID is temporary, he said this is already being used and accepted by banks for opening basic deposit accounts. "Commitment of course is that eventually, we will deliver physical card," Mapa said.
He attributed delay in delivery of physical cards to spike in registration particularly in 2021, when number of registrations reached up to 250,000 per day while printing facilities can only produce 80,000 cards per day. "Adjustment really is to increase the capacity of printer."
He concluded tfinal goal is to have all Filipinos registered with PhilSys and to provide them with ID.
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