Noy cool to national ID system

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino is cool to the proposal to revive the national identification system aimed at cutting red tape and increasing productivity among Filipinos.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte yesterday said the President has apprehensions over the previous proposals because of the privacy aspect.

Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara has filed House Bill 11 or the Filipino ID bill as a practical and doable way to facilitate and streamline government transactions.

Valte said they were open to review Bichara’s proposal to check whether there were new provisions compared to the measures filed before.

Bichara said the proposed Filipino ID would serve as the official identification of a Filipino citizen whether residing in the Philippines or abroad, and could be used in both public and private transactions.

The bill mandates the use of tamper-proof security material to protect the identity of cardholders from unwarranted and unauthorized access.

The idea of a national ID system, according to the lawmaker, has been proposed time and again in Congress due to the benefits that a unified information system would bring to the country and its citizens.

Systematized voter’s registration

A national ID system could prevent a repeat of the chaos that marked the 10-day registration of voters for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) polls, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday.

The poll body admitted that a national ID system would simplify the voter’s registration process.

“We never opposed proposals for a national ID system because we know it would simplify the registration system. We don’t have objection to that,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said yesterday.

But Jimenez said the Comelec’s concern is the database that would be used in coming up with the national ID cards.

“Our concern is where the database would come from. We don’t share our database, which contains voters’ information. That is the reason why we are not included in the UMID,” he said.

Jimenez was referring to the Unified Multi-Purpose ID, which was adopted by the government to harmonize the identification systems of government agencies and government and controlled corporations.

At present, the UMID includes the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and Pag-IBIG.

A voter’s ID contains information such as the voter’s name, signature, address, date of birth, sex, photograph, the number of polling precinct and voting center where he or she is registered, as well as the Voter’s Identification Number.

Jimenez said having a national ID system might also lead to online registration of voters, which is currently not allowed by law.

Around 52 million voters took part in the May 13 polls, the Comelec said.

Jimenez said they are expecting the number to increase after registrants for the barangay and SK elections reached 1.2 million and 2.3 million, respectively.

PhilHealth card as national ID?

Instead of coming up with a totally new concept that would serve as the national ID system, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the PhilHealth card could serve this purpose while taking away the fears of others about their right to privacy.

Recto has been advocating the use of the PhilHealth card as the national ID.

“The benefits one may derive from a PhilHealth card are clear to the bearer, unlike a card which was conceived with the security of the state in mind. People will be happy carrying this card because it will help them in a medical emergency. They will not leave home without it,” he said.

He said the PhilHealth card is ideal as a national ID because it merely contains basic information about the member.

Enacted in 1995, Republic Act 7875 or the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 calls for the universal and compulsory coverage of all Filipinos in PhilHealth.

Once enrolled, a member will be given a health insurance ID card, which the PhilHealth issues so that it can “identify the member, verify his eligibility, and record his utilization of benefits.”

“It is not invasive of one’s privacy. The information supplied is limited to basic ones that the card won’t appear as a curriculum vitae,” Recto said.

“However, I admit that the current format of the PhilHealth card would have to be redesigned to meet the specs of a good national ID,” he added.

The proposed national ID system was introduced several years ago. But it never took off because of concerns about possible intrusion in a person’s right to privacy.

Former President Fidel Ramos tried to implement the national ID system through an administrative order.

The proposal was revived during the Arroyo administration as a security measure, specifically to weed out terrorists. – Aurea Calica, Sheila Crisostomo, Marvin Sy