National ID rollout completed by mid-2022

MANILA, Philippines — The government is set to complete the rollout of national ID within three years after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) signed a P3.4 billion contract with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for the printing of the physical blank IDs.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno and PSA Undersecretary and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa signed the memorandum of agreement for the implementation of Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act.

The law mandates the establishment of the Philippine Identification System for all citizens and resident aliens of the country.

PSA’s roles under the MOA include managing the PhilSys database, ensuring the availability, confidentiality, integrity, accuracy, and readiness of the data that will be encoded in the BSP-produced blank cards, and undertaking the personalization, quality checking and distribution of the PhilIDs.  

Under the MOA, Diokno said the BSP would produce 116 million pieces of blank cards for the PhilID for three years to be issued for free to all Philippine citizens or resident aliens registered under the PhilSys.

“We will also provide needed equipment and space for the embedding of personal information onto the blank cards, which will be done by the PSA,” Diokno added.

With this Philippine ID, Diokno said the BSP widens its area of cooperation with the PSA.

“While our number-crunching agencies have a long history of interaction on statistics, the production of national IDs is a trailblazing field for both institutions,” the BSP chief said.

Diokno said the central bank entered into the government-to-government contract with the PSA and volunteered to print the national ID to avoid delays in the roll out.

“In this country if you bid this out, the losing bidder will sue the winning bidder, they will go to court. It will take forever before we complete this project.

Dahlia Luna, BSP senior assistant governor, said the printing cost of the national ID is about P30 per piece and the security features including a QR code would be better than that of the Philippine passport.

For his part, Mapa said the pilot testing started last Sept. 2 and would be completed by June next year, paving the way for the delivery of the physical national ID in July.

Mapa said the agency is coordinating closely with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to identify the sectors to be prioritized in the registration and distribution of the national ID.

The national statistician said PSA would target island barangays and municipalities in the nationwide roll out of the national IDs.

Mapa said the government hopes to release 14 to 15 million national IDs in 2020 before escalating it to about 50 million in 2021.

The balance, Mapa said, would be distributed to targeted individuals by mid-2022.