A QUARTER of the population will have national IDs or be registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) every year starting 2020, according to the country’s statistics agency.
In a presentation at the First Philippine Data Festival last week, Gina A. Perido of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Planning and Management Service said that by January 2019, around a million households with an average of four to five members each, will be registered under the Proof of Concept project of the PSA and the PhilPost.
By September, during the full implementation of the PhilSys, around 5 million Filipinos will have their IDs.
“The 1 million households will include the recipients of unconditional cash transfer [UCTs]. This includes four to five registrants each household,” Perido told the BusinessMirror. “But these are just preliminary estimates.”
By 2020, which coincides with the start of the PhilSys registration for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in coordination with the Department of Foreign Affairs, around 25 million will be registered.
Between 2021 and 2023, around 75 million more Filipinos will be registered in the PhilSys. The target is to register 25 million Filipinos here and abroad every year.
The PhilSys is going to be the government’s central identification platform for all citizens and resident aliens in the Philippines.
Perido said the PSA is the primary implementing agency for the PhilSys Act and will be tasked with the overall planning, management and administration of the PhilSys.
Earlier, National Statistician Lisa Grace S. Bersales told reporters that the PSA had to decline the two unsolicited proposals they received in favor of piloting the PhilSys with another government agency.
Bersales said the PSA’s agency-to-agency (A to A) arrangement with PhilPost is cheaper at around P130 million to P140 million, compared to an arrangement with the private sector, which could cost around P500 million.
She said that with this, the PSA can avoid spending for a “wrong” system during the proof-of-concept phase of the PhilSys to be conducted between January and June 2019.
After the proof of concept is completed, Bersales said the PSA will procure hardware and software systems at an estimated cost of P1.4 billion. This will include the entire system or “end to end” from the PhilSys registration to the issuance of the IDs.
Meanwhile, the PhilSys shall streamline and expedite applications for the availment of, among others, social welfare and benefits from the government; tax-related transactions; opening of bank accounts; and transactions for employment purposes.
Under the law, the PhilSys will contain the registrant’s biometric information, along with seven demographic data: full name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, blood type, address, nationality and three optional information—marital status, mobile number and e-mail address.
The PhilSys Act requires that said personal information be kept in a resilient data system to ensure that the people’s right to privacy, confidentiality and other basic rights, such as those guaranteed by the Data Privacy Act of 2012, are upheld.
The National Economic and Development Authority said agencies such as the National Privacy Commission, and the Department of Information and Communications Technology will develop and implement measures to keep the database of the PhilSys registry secure and private.