NEDA: 37.2M Pinoys registered for nat’l ID Step 1

Over 37 million Filipinos have already registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) or national ID, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Friday.

In a statement, the NEDA said that from zero registrations on the onset of the pandemic last April 2020, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that as of July 2, 2021, around 37.2 million individuals have been registered for Step 1 or the demographic data collection.

Meanwhile, some 16.2 million individuals have also completed their Step 2 registration or biometrics capture.

Moreover, 343,742 registrants have received their PhilID cards, according to NEDA.

With this, the agency said the government is on track to reaching its 50 to 70 million target registrations by the end of the year.

“The COVID-19 crisis underscores the need to provide unhampered access to banking and social services for all Filipinos, especially the poor. This is why the President gave the directive to accelerate the implementation of the Philippine Identification System or PhilSys to provide all Filipinos a unique and digitalized ID,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua.

To safely roll-out PhilSys amid the pandemic and meet social distancing requirements, the PSA adopted a three-step registration process.

The first step is the demographic data collection, which can be done through house-to-house or via online registration.

The second step is the capture of biometrics at designated registration centers.

The third step is the issuance of the PhilSys Number or PSN and PhilID card.

The NEDA said the PhilSys also partnered with the Landbank of the Philippines to allow registrants to open bank accounts in registration centers.

As of July 2, 2021, 4.4 million registrants have applied for an account with the Landbank, it said.

In a memorandum, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that the PhiIID “should be accepted as official and sufficient proof of identity without the need to present any other identification documents.” 

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) also recently ordered all local government units to recognize the PhilID in public and private transactions.

“We aim to register 50 to 70 million Filipinos with the PhilSys and achieve 100% financial inclusion at the family level by the end of the year. This will help the government efficiently identify beneficiaries for social protection programs and spark the widespread use of electronic payments to accelerate the digital economy,” Chua said.—AOL, GMA News