EDITORIAL — Make sure it bears fruit

There is now a proposal to have the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigate the delay in the production and delivery of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s national identification cards.

“Apart from the delay in meeting the quota for the number of ID cards to be accomplished, there have been complaints about inaccuracy of personal information and blurry images on the cards. Even the usefulness of the ID is in question, as some financial institutions refused to recognize the national ID because it lacks the holder’s signature,” said Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, who filed Resolution 585 to this effect.

It’s about time! While delays in the Philippines are typical run-of-the-mill events, especially among government offices, this is taking even longer than usual. We are talking about years for a simple piece of plastic that a sidewalk store can churn out in minutes.

Also, it’s not just about the delay, it’s also about how irregular the distribution has become. Family members who applied or submitted biometrics for the national ID during the same date and time reported receiving them months apart. Sometimes only one person got them, leaving the others to question what has happened to their ID.

Let’s not even talk about the blurry images or the fact that banks do not honor them because they don’t have the owner’s signature, something that goes back to poor planning at the very beginning.

With all that said, the thing with Senate inquiries is sometimes they are all just bluster. Usually after the grandstanding has died down and some legislators have had their chance to shine and some resource persons put to shame, nothing happens. No changes are made, no one is charged, no one is punished.

During the times when something actually comes out of it --like in the probe into the Pharmally anomalies-- it’s the Senate itself that makes sure progress is not made. For shame.

So yes, let a Senate inquiry be conducted into this debacle. But let’s also make sure it bears fruit.