National ID pre-registration starts Oct. 12 — PSA

IDENTITY CARD The Philippine Statistics Authority released this sample design of the national identification card after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System Act last year. INQUIRER file photo / JAM STA. ROSA

MANILA, Philippines — The pre-registration process for the National ID System will begin on Oct. 12, covering around five million Filipinos from 32 provinces, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.

According to PSA Assistant Secretary Rose Bautista, low-income households from the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Listahanan program were the initial targets of the pre-registration.

“Starting Oct. 12, merong mga magbabahay-bahay sa 32 provinces para ipre-register o ‘yung first step na tinatawag. Dito kukunin ‘yung impormasyon na kakailanganin para pagpunta sa registration center, biometrics na lang ang kukunin,” Bautista said during state-run PTV’s Laging Handa Public Briefing.

(There will be people going house-to-house in 32 provinces to register or what we call the first step. Here, we will get the information needed so that when you go the the registration center, you will just have to arrange the biometrics.)

The PSA official, however, did not identify which provinces would be included in the pre-registration process.

The government has allocated a total of P4.1 billion under the proposed P4.506-trillion national budget for 2021 to fast-track the implementation of the national ID system.

Signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2018, the PhilSys Act or Republic Act No. 11055 seeks to harmonize and integrate several government IDs by establishing a single national identification system for all citizens and resident aliens through the collection of basic personal information and biometric data.

JPV