By Brian Campued
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) will begin rolling out the unified I.D. system for persons with disabilities (PWDs) in selected pilot local government units (LGUs) by October, a DSWD official said.
In a media forum in Quezon City on July 3, DSWD Assistant Secretary for Information and Communications Technology and Chief Information Officer Johannes Paulus Acuña said the unified ID system for PWDs is currently in “internal pilot testing stage”.
“So internal testing development na ‘yong ginagawa namin this July, August, and September para mapaghandaaan namin ‘yong actual roll out sa mga [pilot] LGUs starting October of this year,” Acuña said.
This initiative is in line with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s goal of creating more inclusive programs and policies for vulnerable sectors.
As part of its efforts to curb the proliferation of fake PWD IDs, the DSWD is also working with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to strengthen the unified ID system, particularly in the verification of PWD ID holders through the Philippine Identification System database.
“Ang pinaka-security po ng card ay iyon pong QR (quick-response) code. Tapos doon sa proseso po ng pag-aapply at pag-aapprove, nandoon po ang national ID. So, kung sakali po na mayroong national ID ‘yong beneficiary natin or ‘yong client natin, iyon po ay ire-recognize na valid ID para mabigyan ng person with disability ID,” Acuña explained.
He noted a traceability feature under the unified ID system wherein LGU staff who approve the IDs will also be required to have a national ID. This will allow the system to track the volume of IDs issued by a particular person or in a specific LGU.
“Mate-trace namin kung bakit kaya nagkaroon ng ganoong incident and also kung saang LGU po biglang nag-spike ‘yong approval ng ID,” Acuña stressed, adding that if any fraudulent activity is proven, the QR codes on the issued IDs can be deactivated.
According to the DSWD, about 200,000 PWDs from selected LGUs are expected to participate in the pilot roll out of the unified ID system. The participating LGUs include:
- Parang, Maguindanao;
- the cities of Dagupan, San Carlos, Urdaneta, and Alaminos in Pangasinan;
- Solano, Nueva Vizcaya;
- almost all municipalities in Bulacan province;
- Cainta, San Mateo, Santa Rosa, Teresa, and Antipolo City in Rizal province;
- Carmona, Cavite;
- Pila, Laguna;
- Daet, Camarines Norte;
- Kalibo, Aklan;
- Candijay, Bohol;
- Malaybalay, Bukidnon;
- Koronadal City and Surallah in South Cotabato; and
- the cities of Pasay and Muntinlupa.
-jpv
