National ID Step 1 listing exceeds 20 million–psa
FILIPINOS registered under Step 1 of the National ID registration process has already exceeded 20 million, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Latest data from the PSA showed a total of 20.13 million Filipinos have completed Step 1 registrations for the Philippine Identification System (Philsys) as of February 26.
National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told the Businessmirror on Tuesday that this includes the 10.6 million that were registered in 2020. He said the target for the first three months of 2021 is also within reach.
“The 20 million Step 1 registrants include the 10.6 million Step 1 registrants covered in 2020 [October to December 2020 operations],” Mapa said.
“From January to February 28, 2021, we were able to cover 9.9 million registrants. We are maintaining the 14.9 million [close to 15 million] target for Q1 [first quarter of] 2021,” he added.
The PSA, in a news statement, said the conduct of house-to-house Step 1 Registration would end on March 31. By April 2021, the PSA plans to open the online Step 1 registration to the public.
The primary target in opening Step 1 registration to the public are tech-savvy youths who can encourage and help members of their family register through the Philsys portal.
Meanwhile, efforts to ramp up the implementation of Step 2 registration in all registration centers of the 32 provinces will start by the middle of March 2021.
Step 2 involves the validation of supporting documents and capture of biometric information, such as fingerprints, iris scans, and front-facing photographs at registration centers as per the registrants’ appointments.
“Achieving the 70-million target this year would be an exceptional feat for the PSA and other agencies involved in the implementation. The success of the Philsys necessitates the full support and commitment of government agencies, local government units, civil society organizations, the private sectors, and all Filipinos,” Mapa said in a news statement.
The PSA earlier said National ID Step 1 registration remains on track to hit the 14.9-million target in the first quarter of the year.
This is in addition to the 10.6 million Filipinos registered between October and December 2020. Step 1 registration for the National ID started in October 2020.
For 2021, the PSA intends to register 50 million to 70 million Filipinos in Step 2 of the National ID registration. Mapa said this is doable considering the number of Step 1 registrants completed last year and as of February this year.
He said if the Step 1 registration target for the first quarter of 14.9 million were achieved, this would bring the total Step 1 registration to 25.5 million by March 31, 2021.