Lawmaker wants PSA chief’s head over national ID fiasco

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker on Tuesday called on the head of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to resign after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) decided to terminate its contract with AllCard Inc., the supplier for the government’s national ID project.

Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Flores also called on the BSP monetary board to dismiss the central bank bidding committee officials involved in the failed Philippine Identification System (Philsys) project contract.

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“I am not satisfied nor appeased by the cancellation of the contract with the supplier of the PhilSys National ID. There must be investigations by the BSP and Department of Justice to determine accountability and liability,” said Flores, also House committee on government reorganization chair.

In terminating the contract, the BSP said that only 57.9 million prepersonalized national ID cards were actually produced between 2022 and 2023, 58.1 million short of the target of 116 million cards for Filipinos.

This resulted in a production loss of P1.06 billion, equivalent to 49.91 percent of the P2.1-billion contract awarded to AllCard, it noted.

Flores urged the government to ensure that cases are filed “in this major fiasco … let’s not let the perpetrators escape responsibility. —Krixia Subingsubing