MANILA — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has partnered with the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) to promote the implementation of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) or national ID system.
In a Palace press briefing on Monday, PSA Undersecretary Lisa Grace Bersales thanked the PCOO for agreeing to help PSA in the promotion of national ID, which will serve as a single official ID card for all citizens and foreign residents of the country.
“We are very thankful to PCOO for saying yes to be the partner of PSA for the communications strategy and actually today is like the beginning of this partnership for dissemination of what PhilSys is all about,” she said.
Bersales said extensive information awareness campaign for PhilSys will be done from November to December, with PSA eyeing the launching of the proof of concept before the end of December.
“This (proof of concept) is to test the system and the processes that we have already crafted for the PhilSys. This proof of concept, we say is end to end which is we will test, registration, validation, all the process in between up to issuance of the Phil ID, the national ID card,” Bersales said.
She said the proof of concept will be tested for six months, eyeing one million unconditional cash transfer beneficiaries as first batch of enrollees in over three regions including the National Capital Region.
“We will procure the full system after we’ve learned from the proof of concept and full scale registrations shall start next year in September targeting five million registrants after the one million registered under proof of concept,” Bersales said.
In 2020, the PSA, in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs, will start the registration of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as well as immigrants and dual citizens.
Bersales said the full-scale registration will also start in 2020, targeting around 25 million Filipino registrants.
“In 2021, we continue the full scale registration — 25 million per year; 2022 — 25 million per year; and we hope that (in) 2023, we’ll just (have) to tighten all citizens to be registered including our resident aliens,” she said.
Meanwhile, National Privacy Commission (NPC) Deputy Commissioner Leandro Angelo Aguirre said the privacy impact assessment of the national ID will be done during the proof of concept testing in selected regions.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Director Teresa Garcia also assured that all security components provided in the PhilSys law will be introduced in the national ID.
“It’s not separate component but what we are saying, it’s going to be embedded in all of the system, infrastructure and that of the applications system that would be in the project,” Garcia said.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed the national ID law on Aug. 6 this year, taking out the country on the list of only few countries in the world that had no national ID system.
“The most important use of PhilSys is very simple: It is the card that you will use to introduce yourself and for the agency that you are showing your ID to — to be able to authenticate if you are really who you say you are through some authentication process where some biometrics will be recorded,” Bersales said.
The national ID shall contain a person’s PhilSys number, full name, gender, blood type, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, address, and a front facing photo.
She said the PSA continues to coordinate with other government agencies that issue IDs, particularly the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System. (Jelly Musico/PNA)
