A nation of IDs

If we are to believe the claims of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), it has issued nearly 12 million digital version of the national identification (ID) cards all over the country. Called as ePhilID, it serves only as a temporary national ID pending the issuance of the physical one.

Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) registry office officer-in-charge Fred Sollesta disclosed yesterday that the ePhilID is a part of the PSA’s proactive strategy to allow the immediate use of it as a valid proof of identity and age, subject to authentication. According to Sollesta, the ePhilID is designed to have the same functionality and validity as the physical card being accepted by government agencies and private establishments in transactions requiring proof of identity or age.

It is the exact replica of this government-issued PhilSysID that millions of Filipinos registered to but have yet to get them. Me, for one, until now has not gotten mine since I registered last Feb.12 this year.

Obviously, the ePhilID is the one much complained about on the “disappearing” photo of the cardholder.

Unfortunately, this gives a bad reputation for the real PhilSysID that have yet to be distributed to all who have already registered for it. Sollesta admitted their agency is investigating whether this could be related to issues with batch printing.

Just last Dec.6, the PSA was ordered to expedite the printing of the digital version of the national ID cards as the agency struggles to meet its target in the rollout of the PhilSysID. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) made the directive during a Board meeting with National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and PSA officials, led by Undersecretary Dennis Mapa. The President chairs the NEDA Board. On the other hand, the PSA – which administers the PhilSys – is an attached agency of the NEDA.

Sollesta announced the PhilSys aims to launch the downloadable version by the end of the year. “We have already pre-generated 21.75 million ePhilIDS. So far, we have distributed or issued close to 12 million, actually 11.9, and we are poised to achieve 13 million ePhilID issuance by the end of the year,” he told the ANC interview yesterday.

Talking about IDs, the law enforcing the mandatory registration of subscribers’ identity module (SIM) under Republic Act (RA) 11934 stirred so much confusion for both post-paid and pre-paid subscribers. Called for short as the SIM Registration Act, the implementing rules and regulations provided for the SIM registration until April 26. But everybody seems to be excited not to wait for the deadline that could be extended upon the discretion of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

There are 170 million subscribers covered by the SIM Registration Act subscribing to four of the country’s existing telecommunications companies (telcos). This was based on current estimates serviced by the four public telco entities (PTEs), namely, Smart Communications Inc., Globe Telecom, Dito Telecommunity.

Come to think of it, this could translate to more than one mobile phones per person that have SIMs if we have around 110 million Filipinos. Of course, this excludes the babies, toddlers and children who have no mobile phones yet that require SIMs. But my own toddler grandson knows how to play his YouTube play-and-learn videos in my smartphone. Whenever disrupted from his video game playing, he does not fret and returns my smartphone, saying: “No signal, Mommyla.”

So it was no surprise when the system capacity of the PTEs was overwhelmed yesterday due to multiple glitches and website shutdowns experienced by their subscribers on the first day of the SIM registration. As expected, the SIM registration portals failed to accommodate the sheer volume of individual subscribers trying to access them but had to deal with technical glitches and inaccessible websites.

Although the mandatory registration applies to all the telco customers, it is lesser hassle for the post-paid subscribers whose basic information required by this law were mostly in the records already of their service providers. For individual registration, the pre-paid subscribers must present any valid government-issued ID to their SIM provider.

Had the implementation of the PhylSysIDs not overly delayed, it would be much easy for them to comply with the mandated SIM Registration Act which identified a total of 16 government-issued IDs. More than four years after it became into law, the PhilsysID would have facilitated faster and seamless accessing of financial and other official transactions with just one ID.

The government agencies in charge of the PhilSys ID project are the PSA, the NEDA and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). At the NEDA Board meeting, Mapa reported to the Chief Executive that the PSA continues to work with the BSP in further expediting and boosting the volume of Phil ID production and printing. Lawmakers earlier grilled the PSA over the delay in distributing national IDs which was signed into law in Aug., 2018 under RA 11055 by former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Aside from the PhilSysID, Section 7 (a) of the SIM Registration Act enumerated the following as “valid Government- issued” ID cards, “or any other similar forms of documents with photos that will verify the identity” of the individual end–user, namely: passport; Social Security Service (SSS) ID; Government Social Insurance System (GSIS) e-card; driver license; National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) clearance; police clearance; firearms license to own and process ID; Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) ID;  Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) ID; Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) ID; Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) ID; Voters ID; Senior Citizen’s card; Unified Multi-Purpose Identification card; Persons with Disabilities (PWD) card; or, “other valid government – issued ID with photo.”

This is not to mention the “No Entry” if no vaccination card (for COVID-19). Gosh, we’re a nation of IDs.