Recto laments lack of funding for national ID implementation

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto on Tuesday lamented the lack of funding for the implementation of the National Identification System law.

According to Recto, Congress was assured when the law was passed two years previously that funds would be provided for the fulfillment of the plan which would cover 100 million Filipinos in 4 years.

“But it now appears that there’s a wide gap between intent and implementation. The proof has always been in the funding. And in the case of the national ID project, it is wanting,” the senator said in a press statement.

Recto added that during the plenary deliberation on the National Economic and Development Authority's budget, when he had asked how many IDs had so far been issued, Finance Committee Chairman Senator Juan Edgardo Angara replied, “Zero.”

As for 2020, there was zero funding for the project in the “programmed portion” of the proposed national budget.

Recto said what was provided was a P2.4 billion “unprogrammed appropriation,” which, at best, was a tentative allocation dependent on whether new loans or revenue could be raised.

“But even if the P2.4 billion will materialize, it is only about 42 percent of what is needed to fully meet the project’s objectives and deliverables next year. So instead of 14 million Filipinos, less than half, or 6.3 million, will be registered in 2020,” he said.

This would also lead to a series of delays that would affect the project’s timetable, which was supposed to have 14 million people enrolled in 2020; 52 million in 2021, including 5 million overseas Filipinos; and 44 million local residents plus 5 million overseas Filipinos in 2022.

Recto said that the tunnel-end vision was to register 110 million Filipino citizens and resident aliens and 10 million Filipinos abroad in what was officially called the PhilSys by 2022 and to meet this deadline, 4.3 million registrants must be processed every month by the 5,000 registration kits placed in mobile and fixed registration centers.

“But if the critical purchases in the early stage of implementation will not push through for budget lack, then future registration quotas will not be met. The 2020 scheduled procurement lays the foundation for the project. Without this, the project is crippled, the rollout derailed, its future jeopardized,” he complained.

Recto pointed out that from a government budgeting point of view, the national ID project, which covers the grant of digital credentials to citizens, was needed to prevent leakages and fraud in the implementation of various multibillion-peso social programs such as 4Ps, Universal Health Care, and senior pensions. — DVM, GMA News