No funds in budget for National ID

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration had pressed Congress to pass the National ID law, designating it as a project of the highest priority, but oddly did not provide funds for implementation since its enactment in 2018, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said yesterday.

Recto said the 17th Congress immediately complied with Malacañang when it passed the National ID System bill, especially after the Palace assured lawmakers of funds available for its implementation.

“That was two years ago, when we passed the law certified as urgent by the Palace. During the debates then, we were told that the plan was to cover 100 million people in four years,” he said.

“But it now appears that there’s a wide gap between intent and implementation. The proof has always been in the funding. And in the case of the national ID project, it is wanting,” he added.

Unless rectified, it will be no 2020 General Appropriations Act entry, no ID, Recto said.

Signed by President Duterte on Aug. 6, 2018, Republic Act 11055 harmonizes and integrates some 33 government IDs into the Philippine Identification System or PhilSys.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, author of the law, said a single ID would not only help speed up delivery of services but can also help deter crimes and terrorism.

During deliberations on Monday for the proposed 2020 budget of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Recto asked whether there were funds for the national ID system.

The PhilSys is supposed to be implemented by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which is under the NEDA.

Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the committee on finance and sponsor of the NEDA budget, replied “zero.”

Angara, however, said P2.4 billion was allocated for the ID system in the “unprogrammed appropriation” section of the proposed P4.1-trillion General Appropriations Bill for next year.

Recto described the appropriation as “at best, a tentative allocation dependent if new loans or revenues can be raised.”

He said even if the P2.4 billion would materialize, it is only about 42 percent of what is needed to fully meet the project’s objectives and deliverables next year.

So instead of 14 million Filipinos, less than half or 6.3 million will be registered in 2020, Recto said.

“And this will trigger a domino effect that will lay in shambles the project’s timetable. The original plan is to enroll 14 million in 2020; 52 million in 2021, including five million overseas Filipinos, and 44 million local residents plus five million overseas Filipinos in 2022,” he said.

To meet this deadline, 4.3 million registrants must be processed every month by the 5,000 registration kits placed in mobile and fixed registration centers, he said.

But if the critical purchases in the early stage of implementation will not push through due to lack of budget, then future registration quotas will not be met, Recto said.

“The 2020 scheduled procurement lays the foundation of the project. Without this, the project is crippled, the rollout derailed, its future jeopardized,” he said.

He said from a government budgeting point of view, the PhilSys project, which covers the grant of digital credentials to citizens, is needed to prevent leakages and fraud in the implementation of multibillion-peso social programs such as the Conditional Cash Transfer, Universal Health Care and seniors’ pension.