Swift aid, jabs via ID
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed several institutional weaknesses, including the difficulty in identifying beneficiaries for social programs
Implementing the Philippine identification system or PhilSys will enhance the country’s human capital development amid the health crisis, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said.
“The government is looking forward to implementing three use cases for PhilSys in the immediate term: first by ensuring efficient and effective distribution of emergency subsidies; second, through strengthening financial inclusion and third, via facilitating efficient vaccine distribution for the general population,” Chua said.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed several institutional weaknesses, including the difficulty in identifying beneficiaries for social programs and the lack of bank accounts for the efficient distribution of subsidies,” he added.
Card for 70M in 2021
He added government aims to register around 50 to 70 million individuals by the end of the year in light of President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to accelerate its implementation.
Still, the Cabinet official noted that PhilSys will have a three-step registration process, the last of which or the issuance of PhilSys numbers, will begin this month.
“At the height of the quarantine last year, the government had zero registrations for the national ID. At the same time, the government provided the largest-ever emergency subsidy to the poorest 18 million families or the bottom 75 percent. However, only 22 percent of beneficiaries had bank accounts which led to delays in the payouts,” Chua explained.
“Providing each household with a national ID will allow them to open a bank account and access government subsidy programs efficiently. We also envision PhilSys to spark widespread use of electronic payments which can provide more and better opportunities for people, especially the poor and underserved, to access services,” he added.