Technical difficulties mar national ID registration

MANILA, Philippines — Technical issues marred the first day of online registration for the national ID.

Just barely an hour after its pilot launch Friday morning, project implementer Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) advised the public that the website was experiencing technical difficulties.

It said its technical team was figuring out the exact source of the problem.

The glitch, however, was most likely due to website traffic as many Filipinos tried to access the site and register for the first step of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).

This includes the collection of demographic information and appointment setting for the next step.

Some Filipinos trying to register for PhilSys stormed PSA’s social media page, saying the agency should have anticipated and prepared for the influx of registrants.

The PSA assured the public it would provide updates as soon as the website is up and running again.

Prior to the online registration, a total of 30.736 million Filipinos completed the first step of registration for the national ID system.

These registrants have limited or no access to the internet and the process was conducted house-to-house.

Of the number, 4.4 million have advanced to the second step to capture their biometric information at designated registration centers.

PhilSys aims to provide Filipinos easier access to financial, social protection, health, education and other government services.

It will establish a single national ID system for Filipino citizens and resident aliens.

About 80 percent of low-income registrants have no bank account and are having a hard time accessing bank services because of lack of IDs.

Apart from financial inclusion, priority uses for the national ID include COVID-19 vaccine distribution as well as social protection subsidies.

Issuance and delivery of national ID cards for those who finished steps one and two will begin this month.

At least 70 million Filipinos are expected to be registered by the end of the year. By end-2022, 92 million Filipinos are targeted to be registered with PhilSys.