PhilSys IDs may be done by December

A graphic representation of the national ID. Art by Ed Lustan

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is confident that it can meet its year-end target of 30.1 million printed national identification cards and 19.9 million digital and printable cards, according to Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles.

In a statement, Cruz-Angeles said that as of August 23, the PSA had transferred to the Philippine Postal Corp. some 17.6 million physical national ID cards for delivery to their owners.

She added that Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, also the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) chief, had reported that the PSA was making considerable progress to hit the year-end target of 30.1 million physical ID cards, or 58 percent of the overall target. The PSA is an attached agency of Neda.

103,000 per day

Cruz-Angeles said the Neda chief had also informed Malacañang that in the last 11 days, the daily average of physical cards produced by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) printing facilities was 103,000, which was above the PSA’s target.

President Marcos had ordered the PSA to issue 30 million national IDs by the end of the year and reach the target goal of 92 million by the middle of 2023. In his first State of the Nation Address last month, he said the national ID would enable seamless transactions between citizens and the government.

The Commission on Audit, however, earlier flagged the BSP for failing to deliver the required number of cards under its memorandum of agreement with the PSA.

It noted in its 2021 audit report that out of the targeted 116 million prepersonalized IDs from 2021 to 2023, the BSP had delivered only 27,356,750 prepersonalized cards or 76 percent of the 36 million required for last year.

For 2020 and 2021, it delivered only 8,764,556 personalized cards, or only 17.53 percent of the 50 million targeted for that period.

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