Here we go again on a hayride about the issue of the national identification card. I just can’t understand why people refuse to establish this card. This call has been made ages ago and it has always been set aside and ignored. Once and for all can this new administration straighten things up? Let’s see how efficient they are in getting things done.
Last July 2016, Quezon City Representative Sonny Belmonte proposed House Bill 12, an act establishing a Filipino identification system. This ID system shall provide official identification of all citizens of the country through the issuance of a Filipino ID card and shall gradually convert and consolidate all existing government-initiated identification systems into one integrated and efficient identification system.
The Bill states that the Filipino ID card shall be mandatory and shall be valid for life. It shall only be replaced when a child reaches the age of 18 (and when the person reaches the age of 60), when there is a change in name and family like in a marriage, or for lost or destroyed ID card. The Philippine Statistics Authority shall implement this endeavor while the Department of Foreign Affairs will handle the ID of Filipinos overseas.
What will be the uses of this Filipino ID card? It shall be used for the application of the passport and drivers’ licenses, filing of applications for any services and benefits from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Social Security System (SSS), PhilHealth, Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), proof of identity, attainment of benefits and privileges for senior citizens, and voting identification.
This call for a national ID is timely. Our people need to be protected from government entities that have abused the requirements of identification cards for different purposes with an annual expiration date on it. This has clearly become a money-making venture for them. First and foremost, if you have one ID for all with straightforward information about the person then isn’t that enough? For instance, why do you need a prisoner in any correctional institute for instance to have an ID for educational classes, an ID for livelihood programs, an ID for human development programs within one prison/ jail community? And to make it worse, the inmates have to pay for all these IDs. Where will they get the money? They are unemployed, aren’t they?
Several years ago, my late father Maximo Soliven was frustrated about how the solons decided on the issue. He wrote: “We have Senators Joker Arroyo and Francisco “Kiko” Pangilinan getting on their high horse and condemning the national I.D. card idea as an invasion of the people’s privacy. What invasion of privacy? If Filipinos aren’t proud of who and what they are, then we’ve cause for worry in this land of ours. Why should people want to keep their identities private? Are they just numbers, or robots, or statistics? Those, may I repeat what I’ve said ad nauseam, who want to keep their identities “secret,” hide behind anonymity, are up to mischief. This is why bandits, killers, robbers and some lawmen wear masks or balaclavas (the head to neck hood) when conducting an operation or a raid. Pangilinan even added the non-sequitur that the I.D. requirement might give government agents the opportunity to abuse “innocent civilians” who might not happen to have their I.D.s with them. The intent of the I.D. card proposal is that citizens must have their I.D. on their persons at all times, so we can ferret out the outlaws and distinguish them from the law-abiding.”
Remember that infamous “Jose Velarde” case? When the prosecution witness Caridad Rodenas, cashier of the Mandaluyong City Land Bank branch, was asked by defense counsel Sigfrid “Sig” Fortun to identify one Delia Rajas among others present in the gallery at that time? (Rodenas had testified earlier that Delia Rajas, with Alma Alfaro and Eleuterio Tan, were the persons who transacted with her bank, the Virginia tobacco tax rebate money which then Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson claimed had been delivered by Charlie “Atong” Ang to President Estrada). After making the rounds of the gallery, Rodenas was unable to identify and point to the Delia Rajas, if she was present. When a “Delia Rajas” was pointed out to her, Rodenas noted that the person was not the same one who had been to the bank. It turned out, that the Delia Rajas presented was a cook of the mother of Atong Ang. In short, the exercise Rodenas was subject to was pointless.
My father who must have watched all the episodes of the proceedings to the end wrote, “If we only adopted a National ID System, we would be able to identify each “Delia Rajas,” or, for that matter every real “Jose Velarde,” and distinguished them from the fake ones.”
In recent weeks, as the fighting continues to rage between government forces and Islamic militants in Marawi, a proposal to issue a Muslim ID as part of counterterrorism measures has brought about anger in the country. Rights activists said that the proposal is discriminating the Muslim minority. Laisa Alamia, executive secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao wrote: “Muslims have always experienced subtle forms of discrimination… We have always had to prove that we are good, educated, and civilized.” Samira Gutoc, a prominent women’s rights activist said: “We wear our religion on our face. We don’t need an ID to be identified.”
More than 10 percent of the country’s population is Muslim. Only 25,000 of them live in Central Luzon. A town in Luzon, far from the killing fields in the southern Philippines, has been reported to be bringing in ID cards exclusively for Muslims. Officials in the town of Paniqui, about 150km north of Manila, said they will introduce the system if only to prevent the terrorists from entering their town. Susmariosep!
The national ID card must not only be for the Muslims, but for all Filipinos. I just hope that the processing of the national ID card will be efficient, and that it will be released within a reasonable period (unlike the voter’s ID card and driver’s license which has taken ages to be released). The government must also create ways to ensure that there are no fake cards going around, and no tampering of the database. A seamless use of the ID card nationwide must be achieved. When an individual is accosted, or nabbed, he or she will have to produce an ID card. Those found without IDs will be subjected to further investigation. If innocent, they will be released with a reprimand, and the imposition of the requirement to produce a valid ID. Non-possession of an ID will help in the search for those who are up to no good, or guilty of a crime, in a society riddled with criminality.
Criminals and terrorists succeed only when they are faceless and nameless. And as my father said, “Once more with feeling: Let’s get that ID scheme underway without delay. Our lives may depend on it.”