PRESIDENT Duterte on Monday allayed the fears of the public on issues “peddled by some groups” on data privacy and security, among others, noting how such have prevented previous administrations from passing what he called a “monumental” landmark bill.
The President made this point in a speech during the ceremonial signing of the measure which also coincided with the presentation of Republic Act 11054 or the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, also known as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which was signed days ago.
He said the approved measure means that millions of Filipinos will no longer have to present multiple identification cards to simply prove their identity.
He said the information that will be included in the Philippine ID (PhilID) will not be any different from the information already possessed by different government agencies, such as Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and the Pag-IBIG Fund, Commission on Elections, among others. Moreover, the PSA will also work closely with the National Privacy Commission, Department of Department of Information and Communications Technology and the multi-agency PhilSys Policy and Coordination Council (PSPCC) to address all concerns on data privacy and security.
“There is therefore no basis, if at all, to the apprehension about PhilID unless of course that fear is based on anything that borders [on] illegal,” he said. “If at all, the PhilID will even aid in our drive against social menace of our poverty, corruption and criminal issues as well as terrorism and violent extremism.”
Presidential Spokesman Harry L. Roque, Jr. said: “As we all know, the President is averse to bureaucratic red tape. Through PhilSys, we hope to improve efficiency and transparency of public services and promote ease of doing business.”
Roque said in a briefing in Davao Occidental that the Palace is also confident that the new identification system will pass the test of constitutionality, noting that the previous National ID bill was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court due to the lack of system to protect its database.
“I would like to assure the people that unlike the National ID Bill which was earlier declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because—in Ople vs the Executive Secretary, because there were no safeguards to protect the database — this time around, there is a Privacy Law and in the law itself it is specified that government has the obligation to [protect] the data gathered because of the National ID System. That’s why we are confident that this time around it will pass the test of constitutionality,” he said.