Senate approves national ID system law

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate yesterday approved on third and final reading the proposed Philippine identification system law with 17 senators in favor of the measure and two against it.

Only Senators Francis Pangilinan and Risa Hontiveros voted against Senate Bill 1738.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson allayed fears of critics of the national ID system that this could violate people’s rights to privacy.

Lacson said the public has nothing to fear about the Philippine ID system since it would only contain very basic demographic and biometric data of every Filipino citizen and resident alien.

“There are only two questions being addressed in the proposed measure: who are you and are you who you claim to be? So I don’t see how the privacy of an individual may be invaded when it just answers these two basic questions,” Lacson said.

The information would include the name, address, date and place of birth and biometric data of the cardholder.

Lacson said that the Philippine Statistics Authority would serve as the repository of the data and would not be allowed to disclose whatever data they have unless ordered by the court.

The House of Representatives previously approved its version of the bill, which contains some differences from what was approved by the Senate yesterday.

Lacson explained that the House wanted the card to be purely functional, while the Senate wants the Philippine ID to also be foundational.

“Meaning, each and every Filipino citizen and even resident alien will be armed with legal, valid information,” Lacson said.

“This is to enable our citizens to transact business with public and private entities with ease and expeditiously and conveniently,” he added.

As an example, Lacson said that anyone who intends to open a bank account would no longer have to provide two valid IDs for identification and would only have to provide either the Philippine ID or just the Philippine ID system number.