Let’s scrap the ‘cedula’ practice now

Re-elected Senator Francis Escudero has certainly had his name in the papers more often than not in 2013. Mostly it was for unwanted reasons – such as the circus fiasco that was his problems with pretty young actress Heart Evangelista, who is currently he’s in a relationship with – but other times it was for election purposes and work he was currently doing in the government. Recently, his name has been in the papers again but this time I feel he has come up with a plan that is deserving of support.

I am referring to his stance on the cedula or the community tax certificate, which I can’t help but agree, has become quite useless. It has actually been useless for a long time now and it’s about time we get rid of it for good. Not only is it unnecessary but it also an added burden on people who are already paying so many taxes and don’t need to pay a community residence tax on top of all that as well. What’s more, it is a redundant form of identification since so many other government issued IDs exist for legal transactions such as passports, driver’s licenses, Senior Citizen identification cards, and SSS cards just to name a few.

Additionally, cedulas have been known to be used for unscrupulous business dealings and corruption as well. Imagine any Tom, Dick, or Harry can acquire a cedula from the local government unit with no questions asked as long as they fill out a form and, of course, pay the corresponding fee. Then automatically, they have a government issued ID to do with what they will. There was really no checks and balances in place for giving these out.

Senator Escudero seeks now to abolish the cedula in Senate Bill (SB) 1082 mentioning its redundancy and the unnecessary burden it places on the citizens. He claims that it was as useless now as it was back in the colonial Spanish time when it was first implemented. It’s fun to note that in 1896, the Katipuneros, led by Andres Bonifacio, once tore up their cedula in defiance of Spanish rule at a point which is now viewed as the beginning of the Philippine Revolution. I guess they too thought it was a useless piece of paper.

In related news, a congressman has filed a bill calling for the national identification system to cover Filipinos both here and abroad. This is actually not the first time something like this has been proposed but the last time it came up it was dead in the water because people feared that such a system might be used by the State to violate the rights of individuals.

I feel that is a legitimate concern. History has proven that any sort of system that requires all people of a certain ethnicity to be identified and classified has never ended well. However, according to the Albay Representative who has revived this idea, safeguards will be put into place to ensure that the information under the system would not be made available to third parties or entities except in special circumstances.

Under House Bill No. 11, citizens would be issued “Filipino Identification Cards” that could store at least the biometric data of the cardholder. They would then be issued a “Filipino ID” that would be valid for 10 years and can be renewed.

According to the congressman, this would be a quick way to facilitate and streamline government transactions. And he reiterated that any information given in the system shall be considered as privileged and cannot be used as evidence against a cardholder in any criminal proceedings saying that he is confident that safety precautions in place will prevent the IDs from being used by the State to blackmail its citizens.

Personally, I am on the fence about this one. I am not opposed to the idea, however I do see cause for concern. Putting sensitive information about the citizens of a State in one place can be such a temptation to use the information for purposes other than what it was originally intended. Sure, they mention safety precautions and I do think that they mean well however, corruption is everywhere and it would only be a matter of time before the information might fall into the wrong hands.

I’m sure everyone has read or at least heard of the movie “1984” by George Orwell. It tells the story of a totalitarian state wherein the government or “Big Brother” is always watching its citizens’ every move. This is something everyone who values civil liberties fears. After all, who wants their every move recorded, processed, and collated? This is just the first step. Usually what follows is their thoughts, their beliefs, and eventually their lives. I know that’s a bit extreme but history has proven that too much information can easily lead to corruption and having Pandora’s Box only makes people want to open it.

After all, we already live in a world where we can be found at a moment’s notice through our mobile phones, internet use, and credit card use. Like in that movie “Eagle Eye,” we are always being “watched” one way or another. Do we really need to put yet another identification process in place. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how they go about this. Again, I am not completely opposed to the idea but I do want to know exactly what these safeguards will be as well as know the definition of “special circumstances” wherein the data may be used.

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I am very glad that Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes once again has called for the abolition of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan. In an earlier column I had mentioned I was onboard for the abolition of these groups as they were no longer serving their original intended purpose and were more about being a jumping board for the young into graft and corruption in the government. Honestly the SK has not served its purpose for a long time and it truly feels like its time to get rid of this non-functioning institution.

The cause of concern was raised even more from unprecedented large unruly hordes of registrants who went to election offices to register to vote in the October elections. Now having more people to register to vote should be seen as a good thing, however you have to look closely at how these voter registrants arrived at the election offices. Many of them were brought by candidates in classic hakot form. And what happened was that one candidate would see that the other had brought in all these voters and went to get voters for himself. It would result in big groups having stand-offs in front of the election office. It just further reiterates the fact that the corruption seen in the traditional elections has permeated into the SK as well since this hakot voters style is something politicians do all the time.

I guess time will tell what will happen but in the meantime the Comelec is vowing to truly vet these registered voters since the numbers have gone up by 50% since last year. There is definitely something going on here and they have to see which voters are legitimate and which are not.