Almost 29M nat'l IDs printed, 15.8M ePhilIDs issued as of Jan. 13 -PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday said it has printed almost 29 million Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) identification cards and issued over 15.7 million electronic IDs as of January 13.

The PSA disclosed this in a statement as they welcomed President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s order to tap the private sector in speeding up the digitalization of the National Identification system.

"Given the 75.8 million Filipinos who have already registered to PhilSys, we are eager to collaborate with the private sector to further accelerate our progress in expanding our use cases. We want our registrants to immediately reap and enjoy the benefits of PhilSys, as a digital ID system," PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said.

In a bid to fast-track the issuance of ePhilIDs, the PSA said it adopted a house-to-house distribution strategy and launched a pilot implementation of a website which allows registered Filipinos to download a PDF copy of their ePhilID on their mobile devices.

"PhilSys is a foundational, digital ID system. [S]o its functionality is geared towards digital use - whether as a card, printed on paper, or PDF file. This ensures an inclusive national ID system that can be used across government agencies and private entities for more efficient delivery of services for Filipinos," Mapa said.

Further, Mapa said the PhilSys intends to offer electronic Know-Your-Customer (e-KYC) service where registered individuals may allow the sharing of their data from the PhilSys registry to other parties such as government agencies with frontline services, banks, remittance centers, among others.

In October last year, the PSA started the implementation of the printed digital version of the Phil ID.

Last month, the PSA said it already issued over two million digital versions of the Phil ID.

Like the physical card, claiming a printed e-Phil ID is also free of charge. The PSA also said that the million printed e-Phil IDs issued would be accepted in transactions.

The printed e-Phil ID will be honored in transactions as a valid and sufficient proof of identity and age, subject to authentication, in all national government agencies, local government units, government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions, financial institutions, and the private sector.—LDF, GMA Integrated News