Gov’t eyes to register 10,000 for pilot run of national ID system

The government is eyeing to register around 10,000 individuals for the pilot testing of the national identification system which will run from September to December this year.

“Mga 10,000 lang muna kasi ano ‘yan eh trial so we still have to fine-tune the process,” National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said on the sidelines of the 3rd Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) Forum in Manila on Tuesday.

“Once it’s perfected we can already ramp-up the registrants,” Pernia said.

The NEDA chief said the pilot testing of the national ID system will begin on September 2.

“Next year we will be ramping up as soon as the pilot test will show that we are implementing the National ID the right way,” Pernia said.

“Then we are going to ramp up so that next year, we should be doing 50 million registrants, and then the following year, 2021, another 50 million so that by the end of the administration, we would have covered virtually all Filipinos including OFWs,” he said.

For his part, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said the central bank has volunteered to print the national ID.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered the “best and safest system” in the implementation of the national ID system which covers Filipino citizens and foreign residents.

Signed by the President on August 6 last year, Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys Act) seeks to harmonize, integrate, and interconnect the countless and redundant government IDs by establishing a single national identification system.

The Phil-ID will contain the PhilSys number and the cardholder’s full name as well as facial image, sex, date of birth, blood type, and address. Biometric information such as a full set of fingerprints and iris scan are also in the card.

Optional information includes marital status, mobile phone number, and email address. — MDM, GMA News