National ID system to be tested this month

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Act is set to be tested this month and rolled out by September, the head of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said yesterday.

“We are going to start what we call ‘proof of concept’ or testing the system this January so we hope to have a launch before month’s end,” National Statistician Lisa Grace Bersales said.

Bersales said the proof of concept would help the information technology department in charge of the PhilSys identify what needs to be adjusted on the design that will be procured sometime in the middle of the year.

“The main procurement will be May or June for the full PhilSys and then September is the roll out,” she added.

Partnering with the Philippine Postal Corp. for the proof of concept, the PSA is targeting to enroll a selected group of about five million individuals to test the system during the first quarter of the year.

“We have identified the groups to be those that are under the unconditional cash transfers of DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and other more marginalized groups like IPs (indigenous people) and our senior citizens. But we would also want to test our mobile registration during this proof of concept,” Bersales said.

The proofing, according to her, should have tested the IT processes and the process of registration that include getting a transaction number and waiting for the ID cards.

“Then we will do some adjustments on the system (by the second quarter) which we will then procure by May or June. These are indicative schedules but the schedule for the rollout of the national ID is September 2019,” Bersales said.

She added that the PSA, starting in 2020, would exponentially increase the number of citizens to register to about 26 million people per year.

President Duterte signed the PhilSys Act in August last year. He said the program would cut red tape, reduce corruption, improve the delivery of basic services and serve as a tool to keep the public safe.