Ex-cons should get gov’t ID — Liboro

National Privacy Commission (NPC) chairman Raymund Enriquez Liboro

Filipinos with criminal records should also have a national ID and such a guarantee should be included in the implementing rules and regulations that is being drafted for the Philippine Identification System Act (PhilSys) signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last 3 August.

National Privacy Commission (NPC) chairman Raymund Enriquez Liboro said before giving ex-convicts the privilege, their identity should be established and his past infractions should not be a basis to deny the issuing of an ID.

“For me the identity of the person should be established first and not his past. Thus, he has a right to secure an ID whoever he is starting when he was born. The fields of information needed is limited but having a criminal record or not should not be asked,” Liboro said.

The NPC has contributed to the drafting of the law that tasked the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to secure the data of the applicants and to minimize the information needed in registering for a single government ID.

When deliberations for PhilSys started there were 35 information sought to be included in the data bank on a person but it was laterr limited to seven.

Liboro said the mobile number and email address of the person would be an optional information under the PhilSys requirements.

Liboro said all important or sensitive information would be secured by the NPC including the cardholder’s biometric information and iris scan.

“We will make sure that this kind of sensitive information would be secured and will not immediately be used,” Liboro said.

He said biometrics since it was included in the information would be immediately used particularly if this would be required by establishments.

A PSA employee becomes liable if proved violating the provisions of the national ID Act.

Liboro said data misuse will have a penalty of 15 years imprisonment and another six years from the Data Privacy Act or a total of 21 years of imprisonment.

“If it was used and would be discovered that a person inside the system of PhilSys gave the unauthorized information to marketing companies, they will face the full force of the law,” he added.

The ISO standards with regards to the identity of the management will be pushed by the NPC in the drafting of the implementing rules.

Personal data to be collected for the national ID will be include name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, and address.

The ID or its number can be used when dealing with national government agencies, local government units, government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions, and the private sector.

Registration for the ID will be free of charge and Filipinos living abroad may sign up for their national ID with the embassy or consular office where they are located.

The budget allotted was P2 billion for the initial implementation of the program.