BSP, PSA to ink pact on national ID rollout

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) are set to sign an agreement tomorrow as part of the nationwide rollout of the national ID system.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa are expected to lead the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the two institutions on Monday at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

The central bank is set to print the biometric national ID card, while PSA will be solely responsible for the information for the proposed national ID.

A physical national ID or PhilID will be issued to each individual who registers with the system. Each person will also get a randomly generated, unique and permanent ID number or Common Reference Number.

Personal data to be collected for the national ID includes name, sex, date of birth, place of birth and address. Biometrics information will also be collected, including facial image, full set of fingerprints, iris scan and other identifiable features that are necessary.

It will be optional to give one’s mobile number and email address.

President Duterte signed Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Act into law in August last year. The system aims to unify all government IDs into one.

Despite the numerous IDs issued by the Philippine government, 14 percent of Filipinos are denied government and financial services for lack of proper identification documents.

“The BSP has volunteered to print the ID so as not to delay the printing because if you bid this out, the losing bidders will challenge the winning bidders, it will go all the way to court, it could take years so we volunteered, we will print it, it’s a government to government contract,” Diokno said.

 For his part, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia had said 5,000 to 10,000 individuals would be served during the initial rollout of the national ID system.

If the pilot test is successful, Pernia said the program could cover 50 million in 2020 and another 50 million in 2021.

“As long as the pilot test show that we are implementing the national ID the right way, then it can be ramped up starting next year so that we will be able to cover 50 million registrants and then the following year, another 50 million so that by the end of this administration, we could cover virtually all Filipinos, including OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) and resident aliens,” Pernia said.

The PhilSys would serve as a centralized database for vital information on all residents and resident aliens in the Philippines.

At least P2 billion was allocated for the national ID program in the 2018 budget.