By Judy Quiros / Philippine News Agency
DAVAO CITY – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is accepting the Philippine Identification (PhilID) card as valid proof of identity for all transactions, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on Aug. 23.
BIR is among the national government agencies which endorsed the PhilID, the others being official delivery partner Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The Central Bank of the Philippines has likewise asked banks to honor the PhilID.
“You can now use your PhilID in transacting with any BIR office in the country,“ the PSA said.
Republic Act (RA) No. 11055 (Philippine Identification System [PhilSys] Act) states that the PhilID card shall serve as the official government-issued identification document of cardholders in dealing with all national government agencies, local government units, government-owned or controlled corporations, government financial institutions, state universities and colleges, and all private sector entities.
“PhilID shall be accepted, subject to proper authentication, as a sufficient proof of identity,” RA 11055 states.
Under Section 19 of the Act, any person or entity who refuses to accept or recognize the PhilID or PhilSys Number as the only official identification of the holder, without just and sufficient cause, shall be fined an amount equivalent to P500,000.
Signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in August 2018, the PhilSys Act aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens.
The national ID shall be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, enrollment in schools, and the opening of bank accounts.
It also seeks to boost efficiency, especially in dealing with government services where people will only need to present one ID during transactions.
As of Aug. 18, a total of 26,322,999 have completed Steps 1 and 2 registration while 1,048,255 PhilID cards have been delivered door-to-door by PHLPost.
The entire process is free of charge. (PNA) – jlo
