AN official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is pitching calls to include DNA records of individuals in the National ID on top of biometrics.
Allan B. Tabell, chief of the Central Office Disaster Information Coordinating Center of the DILG, said the inclusion of DNA record would help authorities identify dead people, especially during disasters.
“It is unfortunate that we were not part of the technical working group when the National ID bill was being deliberated,” said Tabell, who also acts as head of the Management of the Dead and Missing Persons Cluster the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
President Duterte signed last year Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act.
The Philippine Identification System, or PhilSys, is a system that centralizes personal information of all Filipino citizens and resident aliens. Its product is the Philippine ID or PhilID and PhilSys Number, or PSN, which will be used to authenticate identity in all government and private-sector transactions, including applications for driver’s license, passport, tax-related transactions, voter’s registration, application to schools and bank transactions.
The PhilSys Registry Data include demographic data, such as full name, gender, blood type, address, citizenship, marital status, mobile phone number and e-mail, and biometric data, such as the front-facing photograph, full set of fingerprints and iris scan.
Tabell said retrieval, and more important, identifying the dead as part of the management of the dead and missing persons is as important as the conduct of search and rescue operations.
“Dignified and proper management of the dead in disasters is fundamental to help the families know the fate of their relatives and mourn their dead,” he said.
Tabell was among the resource person during a media forum on the DILG Disaster Risk Reduction—Climate Change Action protocols for local government units (LGUs) held recently at the Local Government Academy in Pasig City.
He cited several cases where unidentified corpses had to be disposed of in mass graveyards to prevent epidemic, or health problems, arising from the strong foul odor of hundreds, if not thousands of decaying bodies.
During the forum, DILG officials briefed the media about the various initiatives of the DILG, which seeks to enhance the capacity of LGUs in responding to, and managing disasters in partnership with the national government.
This include a presentation of the Operation Listo Program, it’s revised or updated version which lists down “to dos” for LGUs before, during and after a natural calamity like a strong typhoon, flash flood, landslide, or earthquake which results in tragic deaths.