The government closes in on its overall target for 2022 after registering more than 70 million Filipinos to the Philippine Identification System, a Philippine Statistics Authority official said.

"As of August 2022, 72.3 million Filipinos have completed their PhilSys Step 2 Registration which involves capturing biometric information, such as fingerprints, iris, and front-facing photographs," PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said.

This makes up 78.6 percent of the 92 million registration target for this year.

Mapa said "yes" the target for this year is doable.

Moreover, Mapa commends and regards this as an outcome of the collective efforts of the PSA Regional and Provincial Field Offices in their initiatives through mobile and institutional registrations.

In Jolo, Sulu, mobile registration was conducted to reach Filipinos living in far-flung areas. In the municipality of Luuk, residents who were successfully registered to PhilSys included senior citizens.

As face-to-face classes resumed across the country, school-based registration activities were also set up.

At Mayapyap Elementary School in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, students aged 5 to 14 were registered to PhilSys. The PSA has covered 2,777 schools with 362,220 Step 2 successful registrations as of 31 August 2022.

"The PSA is exerting all efforts as we set our sights on accomplishing the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to distribute 50 million PhilIDs by the end of the year," Mapa said.

"We would like to assure the public that we are on track in achieving our goal to provide immediate and improved access to financial and social protection services, especially to low-income individuals," he added

Meanwhile, the PSA targets to issue 30 million physical cards and 20 million digital IDs by the end of 2022, which will be available in various formats -printable, downloadable and mobile app-generated.

"The digital ID has the same functionality and validity as the physical PhilID cards," Officer-in-Charge, Deputy National Statistician Fred Sollesta of the PhilSys Registry Office said.

"Expected to be rolled out this year, this will allow Filipinos to enjoy the benefits of being registered to PhilSys while waiting for their physical cards," he added.