The National ID

Have you seen the Facebook post of this guy who had lost around 60 pounds during the 16.5 months that it took for his National ID to be sent to him? He was noticeably heavier in the photo on the ID, which he held up in his “After” photo. “Dear PSA, pumayat na ’ko kakahintay” read his caption. Thumbs up to Joemar Torres for this creative but on-the-nose comment to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

So far, my ID wait has only been about eight months, so I’m certainly not holding my breath. And I’m not going to bother with that downloadable version either; in the meantime my UMID and driver’s license (10-year validity, no less!) will have to be enough to prove who I am.

The registration process was simple, painless, fast, conveniently held in malls with staff who were very efficient and courteous. But I guess the efficiency ends there. We face yet another government fiasco with typical Pinoy humor and patience. I can only shake my head when the chief of the PSA explains that the long, long, long delay in releasing the National IDs is due to the “high volume” of people who registered for the ID that they didn’t expect or anticipate. So far, around 75 million Filipinos have registered for the ID; around 22.5 million (less than 30 percent) have been sent out.

I wonder what their projected volume of registrations was; whatever statistical model they used is certainly super screwed! And if government is relying on the PSA to provide the statistical models to guide policy-making decisions, boy, are we screwed!

– JING DELOS SANTOS, San Juan City