EDITORIAL — Where is your national ID?

If you are wondering where your national ID is, you aren’t alone. Millions are still waiting for their IDs to arrive despite how long ago they submitted their biometrics and despite how long ago it was promised to arrive.

The reason provided by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for the delay is that they are double-checking IDs to make sure they don’t issue the wrong ID to the wrong individual, or that they don’t issue two IDs with different names to the same person, however that mistake can happen.

As valid as that alibi is, it doesn’t make a recent development any less distressing; the discovery of three PVC national IDs and dozens of certified paper IDs discarded in a trash heap last month in Barangay Tiling, Cauayan town, Negros Occidental.

According to a Rappler report, Barangay Tiling resident Bernie Nuñez said it was his uncle who informed his family about what had been found in a trash heap near the barangay hall.

Nuñez said he went to the trash heap and saw the national IDs among the garbage; he recorded what he saw and posted it on social media in hopes of contacting the owners of the IDs.

The same report said the barangay captain of Tiling said the items may have been disposed of accidentally. This isn’t reassuring at all. What went wrong in their delivery? How did something that important end up in a pile of garbage?

If this is what happened to some of the IDs we can only imagine what happened to other IDs that haven’t been received by their owners. Are they also lying in trash heaps somewhere waiting to be discovered by anyone just looking through the trash?

This isn’t something that should be treated lightly. Aside from possibly being used by whoever finds them for dishonest purposes, discarded national IDs have information that an ID owner may not necessarily want to divulge publicly.

The PSA has promised a probe into the incident. We await the results.