PAPER ID A congressional worker shows a sample of the PhilSys ID presented to the House of Representatives when the Philippine Statistics Authority was seeking funding. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Monday said it has successfully printed over 60 million physical and virtual national identification cards (IDs) under the implementation of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).
In a statement, PSA said that a total of 60,326,990 IDs have been printed — 33,550,575 of which are PhilIDs dispatched for delivery to registered persons, while 26,776,415 are ePhilIDs printed at registration centers.
“Reaching 60 million national IDs printed brings us closer to fully realizing the envisioned benefits of PhilSys of making more services accessible,” said PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa.
“That’s why our coordination with government agencies such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) centers on using PhilSys to support the implementation of social protection programs. Gusto namin na ngayon pa lang, maunawaan na ng ating mga beneficiaries ang kahalagahan ng PhilSys sa pagiging mas accessible ng iba’t-ibang serbisyo ng ating pamahalaan,” he added.
The PSA then said that it continues to push the Philippine Post Office to speed up the delivery of IDs, even implementing the downloading of password-protected ePhilIDs via mobile devices — which registered persons may access once they receive an SMS notification from PSA.
Both the PhilID and ePhilID bear a QR code that can be used for easier identity verification and authentication, as opposed to more traditional methods involving handwritten signatures which can be easily forged.
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