Duterte blames absence of national system for COVID-19 cash aid distribution problems

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said the execution of the national ID system could have solved the discrepancies in the distribution of the financial aid under the national government’s social amelioration program.

“Nagkakaroon tayo ng problema. Hindi ito perfect kaagad. Especially so, noon pa, sinabi namin na national ID makakatulong,” Duterte said in a nationally-televised address.

“Kung may ID system lang tayo, naiwasan natin itong mga ‘to,” he added.

Duterte also blamed leftists for the absence of the national ID system due to their opposition.

“Itong mga left, kaya kita mo ngayon, wala tayong ID system until now.”

“Kung wala kayo sa listahan, then hindi kayo mabigyan. Hindi na kasalanan ‘yan, ‘wag kayong magsisi sa gobyerno,” he said.

Duterte added the government will conduct another rapid survey with the help of local government units to identify those who were not included in the list of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“After a revalidation at malaman na namin, I’m sure Secretary Bautista can act immediately,” he said.

“Kung wala ka, maghintay ka and we will come up (with something).”

Earlier, Senate President Vicente Sotto III also batted for the enforcement of the national ID system for the distribution of the social amelioration program.

Sotto said he already raised the matter to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and that the latter already agreed with him.

Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System Act in 2018, which seeks to harmonize, integrate, and interconnect the countless and redundant government IDs by establishing a single national identification system.

The ID will contain the PhilSys number, full name, facial image, sex, date of birth, blood type and address of the concerned individual.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Statistics Authority earlier said the mass enrollment for the ID system will begin in mid-2020. -- BAP, GMA News