MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has already surpassed its year-end goal of collecting demographic data from 9 million Filipinos for the national ID system, prompting it to hike its target to over 10 million.
“According to the PSA, as of Dec. 14, a total of 9,004,546 went through step one registration, exceeding the 9-million target for 2020” across 32 targeted provinces, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said in a press conference on Thursday.
For 2021, the target is nearly half of the country’s population or a minimum of 50 million Filipinos, added Chua, also the concurrent chair of the PSA board.
“The national ID aims to address one of the major barriers to financial inclusion, which is the lack of an ID. Among the 9 million step one registrants, 89.3 percent said they do not have bank accounts. The Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) will colocate in step two registration centers to allow registrants to open a bank account. This is an opportunity to provide accounts to all 20 million low-income families,” he said.
The second step toward acquiring a national ID—the capture of biometrics information—will start on Jan. 4 next year, followed by the issuance of ID numbers and actual ID cards.“We are also exploring how the national ID may assist the government in the efficient distribution of [COVID-19] vaccines,” Chua said.
Priority
On Wednesday, Chua told a forum that he had already suggested to vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. that the Philippine Identification System be used as the basis for determining who would be vaccinated first.
The government plans to prioritize indigent households, whose heads are also the first ones currently undergoing step one of the national ID registration process.
Chua said the availability of an effective COVID-19 vaccine would be one way to boost consumer and business confidence that had been weighed down by a pandemic-induced recession and prolonged quarantine to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Earlier, Chua suggested that the government use the national ID to identify the first batch to be inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Chua said they expect over 10 million people from the 32 priority provinces to hurdle the initial registration requirement by year-end.
The second step to capture biometrics information will start on Jan. 4 next year, and then the issuance of ID numbers and actual ID cards shall follow.