PSA scraps separate system for national ID

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will no longer bid out a separate system for the conduct of the proof of concept testing for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).

PSA head Lisa Grace Bersales said the policy and coordination council for PhilSys cleared last week the alternative plan of leveraging the capability of the network of the Philippine Postal Corp. (Philpost) – as an alternative data capture point for Social Security System (SSS) IDs – in testing the PhilSys environment for the next six months in preparation for the procurement of the full system in June.

The result of the proof of concept, which would be carried out in a span of six months beginning January, would be used as a guide in revising the technical specifications for the full national ID system. This would cover the end-to-end functions of the PhilSys covering the data capture for registration to the provision of the physical ID.

“We will instead have an agency-to-agency partnership with PhilPost for the proof of concept, use whatever system it has,” Bersales told reporters on the sidelines of the leadership roundtable hosted by financial technology firm FLINTQ.

It would cost significantly less to test the proof of concept using the PhilPost network at around P140 million compared with as much as P500 million that would have to be shelled out if a separate system would still be procured for the test run as earlier announced.

The full system for the national ID system, which would be procured through solicited competitive bidding in June, would cost around P1.4 billion.

Bersales said the procurement of the full system would proceed as scheduled to meet the timetable for the full implementation of the system in September.

A budget of P4 billion has already been secured for the PhilSys until next year, paving the way for the procurement of the full system and the conduct of the proof of concept on time.

The conduct of proof of concept would be aligned with the pilot test of the system in select areas covering at least one million registrants.

PSA earlier rejected the unsolicited proposal submitted by a consortium composed of the Ayala and Aboitiz groups with Unisys Philippines for the design and development of the national identification card infrastructure system in favor of a competitive bidding.

The PhilSys Act (Republic Act 11055), which created a central identification platform for citizens and foreign residents, was signed into law last Aug. 6.

It would cost at least P30 billion to implement the project over five years. This covers procurement of the system, provision of the free ID, capacity building, formation campaign and registration process.

The PhilID that would be issued is meant to be a foundation identification card containing basic information meant to provide ultimate proof of identity. 

Bersales said this would enable greater ease in in availing of government benefits and services and securing other government documents such as licenses and passport. For the poorest members of the population, this would pave the way for greater financial inclusion as it would provide them with a solid means of identification that can be used in opening accounts with financial institutions.

PhilSys would not be linked to a super database and as such, information to be collected shall be limited to the following: full name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, blood type, address, Filipino resident or alien. Unique identifiers would also be collected such as biometric information comprising a front-facing photograph, full set of fingerprints and iris scan.

Bersales said the poor and vulnerable section of the population would be prioritized in the registration. This includes the one million households identified by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) as eligible for conditional and unconditional cash transfer.

Registering for a PhilID is not mandatory and bears no penalty for non-compliance. Filipinos who do not avail themselves of the national ID would not be denied government services and benefits. It would, however, fast-track the delivery of public services and social protection benefits to its intended recipients.