PSA urged to start implementing national ID system

E VEN before the national identification (ID) system bill is enacted into law, a lawmaker said the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) may already start implementing the program.

Davao City Representative Karlo Nograles, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, urged the PSA to start tapping the P2-billion budget for the national ID system and implement it this year.

The Senate approved on third reading its version of the proposed National ID System Act last week. The House, for its part, approved on third reading the proposed Act Establishing the Filipino Identification System or (FilSys) in September 2017.

The House of Representatives and the Senate still have to reconcile their versions of the bill, but Nograles said the PSA could already start the process by tapping the P2-billion national ID system budget under the P3.767-trillion national budget this year.

"Let us remind the PSA to implement the measure using the budget of P2-billion we allocated for 2018.

The figure is broken down as follows: P1.9 billion for capital outlay (CO) and P100 million for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE)," Nograles said.

"Although it is not yet a law, we already appropriated the budget to make the National ID System a reality this year," he further said.

Nograles expressed confidence that the President will sign the legilsation.

The FilSys card is the envisioned machinereadable government card that will store multiple data including among others the social security and tax details of the cardholder.