‘Govt will fast-track production, distribution of national ID cards’

THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) are targeting to accelerate the production and distribution of the physical national IDS.

The PSA said out of the 79 million registrations, 37.8 million national IDS have already been printed.

PSA Officer-in-charge-deputy National Statistician Fred S. Sollesta said in a televised interview on Thursday that the agency is now in talks with the BSP to fasttrack the production of the physical cards.

“We are studying options for accelerating the printing of the national IDS and to complete the distribution and production of the physical cards. If this cannot be done within the year then we will have a good chance of completing it next year,” Sollesta said in a mix of English and Filipino.

The PSA, he said, has been able to register 79.12 million and generate 76.17 million Philippine Identification System (Philsys) numbers.

“So far iyong na-print natin na ID ay 37.73 million.” This, he said, is the same number of physical IDS that the PSA turned over to Philippine Postal Corp. (PHILPOST).

“So, out of that nakapagdeliver sila ng 31.95 million or close to 32 million and then for PSA, nag complement kami ng pag-isyu ng credentials through the #ePhilID which is around 34.53 million na ngayon as of May 26,” he added.

The total number of ID credentials that the PSA has distributed or delivered to citizens is now at 66.48 million, according to Sollesta.

As for those who received national IDS made of paper, he said, “Actually iyong paper na national ID ay #ePhilID iyon, iyong sinasabi ko na #ePhilID.”

He added that the PSA did this to accelerate the issuance of Philsys credentials. The #ePhilID, he noted, contains PCM and QR code. He said the QR code has a security feature which can be used in the transaction to prove the identity and age.

“But we assure all the citizens na lahat ng nag-register sa national ID will also receive the physical card which is printed at BSP. So by giving those na, iyong pag-address namin ng malaking gap ng registration and then the issuance of credentials, ginamit namin iyong pag-isyu ng #ePhilID,” Sollesta said.

He also said Filipinos can download an e-copy of their #ePhilID, so that they can easily store it in their cellphones.

Meanwhile, Sollesta said PHILPOST had informed the agency that the fire that recently broke out at the Manila Central Post Office affected some 7,500 national IDS.

“We would like to clarify that the cards affected were only cards na para sa City of Manila. Hindi siya iyong parang repository siya ng lahat ng printed cards coming from BSP,” he said.

“And PHILPOST was able to give the number around mga 7,500 iyong

affected. They have already forwarded the information including data kung ano iyong mga cards na

affected, and tini-trigger na namin ngayon iyong reprinting sa BSP,” Sollesta added.