ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Philippine Statistics Authority in Region 9 said that delays in the delivery of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys or National ID) are due to several factors but mainly to Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for printing, and producing the ID and the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) for delivery. The PSA is the registration arm of the national ID program.
Republic Act No. 11055, otherwise known as the Philippine Identification System Act, established a single national identification system for all citizens and resident aliens of the Republic of the Philippines.
As a foundational digital ID system, the PhilSys will transform how services are delivered and accessed in the Philippines, and accelerate our transition to a digital economy, including enabling presence-less, paperless and cashless transactions.
But ever since it was signed into law in 2018 by then-president Rodrigo Duterte, it has been plagued with challenges in logistics, printing, and delivery and has been ridiculed for its failure to live up to expectations especially when the government decided to send IDs in bond paper.
PSA Region 9 Director Mewchun Pamaran explained that the national ID has no timeframe for creating the database. “For PSA, we are just the registering agency. In terms of registration, we have surpassed the target,” Pamaran said.
“The BSP produces the ID, the distribution of the IDs is with the Post Office,” Pamaran said.
“We do the database and transmit it to BSP, but before we do that we have a system integrator, where we culled out double registration,” Pamaran said.
Pamaran added that the PSA registration system is bringing their services to the barangay to make it closer to those that need to be registered.
“National ID is not mandatory but if we know what the benefits are like for example when opening an account in a bank, you only need a national ID. That is one of the advantages of the National ID,” Pamaran said.
The PhilSys project emphasizes inclusive coverage, enabling access to the most vulnerable groups such as the poor, people living in geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities.
