800,000 Pinoys register online for national ID

MANILA, Philippines — Three weeks after its official launch, some 800,000 Filipinos have completed the first step of the online registration for the national ID.

Project implementer Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said more individuals have registered online for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), now reaching 849,862 Filipinos.

This came three weeks after the pilot launch of the online registration, which was marred by technical issues.

The online registration aims to boost the public’s engagement with PhilSys without compromising health and safety protocols.

The first step includes the collection of demographic information and appointment setting for the next step.

The PSA said it is now upgrading its servers to increase user capacity and enhance site performance.

It is also developing user-management and user-testing strategies to accommodate heavier traffic of registrants accessing the site.

Prior to the online registration, a total of 33.3 million Filipinos have completed the first step of registration via house-to-house collection of demographic data in priority provinces.

Of this, 6.4 million have advanced to the second step which involves the capture of a registrant’s biometric data such as their iris scans, fingerprint scans and front-facing photograph.

PSA also started step three, which involves the issuance of the PhilSys number and the national ID card itself.

PhilSys will provide a formal identification to Filipinos that will ease the delivery of services and make public and private transactions seamless, safe and efficient.

It aims to increase the public’s access to financial, social protection, health, education and other government services.

At least 70 million Filipinos are expected to be registered by yearend. By the end of 2022, 92 million Filipinos are targeted to be registered with PhilSys.