IDENTITY CARD The Philippine Statistics Authority released this sample design of the national identification card after President Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System Act. JAM STA. ROSA
MANILA, Philippines — The government is eyeing to enroll a majority of Filipinos in the national ID system by 2022, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Wednesday.
“Technically, lahat ng Filipino kailangan magkaroon ng national ID pero nakaschedule po, ang inuna natin ay yung mga household heads dito sa mga 32 provinces. Pero by 2022, kailangan majority, kung hindi naman lahat ng ating mga kababayan, ay mayroong national ID,” DILG spokesman and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said over a dzBB interview when asked if all Filipinos will get registered for the national ID.
(Technically, all Filipinos need to get a national ID. But we have a schedule, we initially want household heads in 32 provinces to get the ID. But by 2022, we need a majority, if not all Filipinos, to have the national ID.)
Malaya underscored that the national ID seeks to harmonize the “valid proof of identity” of Filipinos.
“Ang gusto po natin sa sistemang ito ay hindi na yung napakaraming ID pa ang ginagamit ng ating mga kababayan for identification,” Malaya said.
(What we want in this system is for people not to use a lot of IDs for identification.)
“Marami pa rin tayong mga kababayan na wala pa ring ID ngayon. Sedula pa rin ang ginagamit. So pagnagkaroon pa tayo nito, mayroong isang valid proof of identity,” he added.
(We have a lot of netizens that still do not have IDs right now. They still use the certificate for personal tax. So if we have the national ID, we now have a single proof of identity.)
Previously, the DILG announced that they will begin the pre-registration for the national ID system of heads of households in 32 provinces amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said it will start the pre-registration, which is the collection of the applicant’s social demographics as the registration process requires going to testing centers which might cause mass gatherings.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys Act), or Republic Act No. 11055, in August 2018. The measure seeks to harmonize and integrate several government IDs by putting up a single national identification system.