Nat’l ID system could be in full swing in three to five years — PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) expects over 100 million Filipinos to be registered under the new national identification system in three to five years.

“In three to five years, ma-register na lahat,” National Statistician Dr. Lisa Grace Bersales said in a press briefing at Malacañang on Wednesday on the newly-signed Philippine Identification System Act (PhilSys).

Bersales mentioned that they are targeting at least 25 million Filipinos to be enrolled under the national ID system in 2019 as the PSA is set to go “full swing” in implementing the law.

Under PhilSys, Filipinos applying for a national ID are required to disclose the following: name, birthday, birth place, sex, blood type, address, and nationality.

Applicants for the national ID are also required to have their biometrics taken, including facial image, iris, and fingerprints.

Disclosing other pieces of information, however, are optional: marital status, e-mail address, and mobile number.

The PSA expects that it will spend P30 billion for the implementation of the national ID system law within three to five years.

Bersales assured the public that only the PSA will have access to their personal data as stated under the national ID system law, unless the citizen or the court allows the sharing of information.

“It should be an explicit agreement by the citizen that this information from me will be shared with another institution,” the PSA official said. “So only if the citizen says yes or the court says yes.”

In addition, Bersales said that they will make sure that the information technology system used to protect the centralized database of ID holders’ data will be the “most advanced” against illegal activities.

The PSA official added that a third party team would conduct a privacy impact assessment to test the protective system of the database.

“With the advice of the NPC, we plan to have a Privacy Impact Assessment of our National ID System which should be done by a third party,” Bersales said.

“This is just to assure everyone that PSA has already instituted proper rules, guidelines, both technical and processes to ensure the privacy of our citizens and those that are in the database,” she said.   /vvp