Philsys or ‘Phil-Tiis’?
For some reason unacceptable to many, including lawmakers, the delivery of PHilID cards took forever for more than 74 percent of registrants or more than 68 million out of its 92 million target.
Text size
For some reason unacceptable to many, including lawmakers, the delivery of PHilID cards took forever for more than 74 percent of registrants or more than 68 million out of its 92 million target.
A little more than four years after then-President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act on 6 August 2018, the full realization of the aim to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens remains illusory.
RA 11055 established the Philsys that will supposedly provide 92 million target Filipinos with a valid proof of identity — the Philippine Identification or PhilID card — to simplify public and private transactions, enrolment in schools, and the opening of bank accounts.
Tasked to be the primary agency to carry out the provisions of the law is the Philippine Statistics Authority which will maintain the national registry for the PhilID and issue the cards to all qualified registrants.
For some reason unacceptable to many, including lawmakers, the delivery of PhilID cards took forever for more than 74 percent of registrants or more than 68 million out of its 92 million target.
As of early July this year, the PSA said 14.3 million physical cards have been delivered. It could have slightly increased as of date. It is absolutely unacceptable considering that their timeline set a target of 36.4 million cards delivered by June 2022.
Citizens' ire over the delay of PhilID cards makes sense. It was "fake news" for them to be told that their cards will be delivered 3-6 months after completing Step 2 (on-site collection of biometric information including photographs, fingerprint, and iris scan) of the PhilID registration.
PhilID online comments are teeming with mounting complaints like — still no cards delivered after more than a year; not all household members, who completed Step 2 at the same time, received theirs; "erasable" print quality, the low resolution of ID photo, and people saying it is 'Phil-Tiis', not Philsys.
Ridiculous for a multi-billion national ID system project, that has been allocated P27.8 billion.
A Commission on Audit report for 2020 and 2021 cited its observations of Department of Finance non-financial issues that read, "the quantity of produced and delivered Philippine Identification cards did not meet the requirement provided in the terms of reference; thus, causing delay to the Philippine Identification System project of the government, intended to streamline the transactions in both the public and private sectors."
The CoA report showed that the total actual deliveries of pre-personalized cards by the contractor, AllCard, was 27,356,750 pieces, or 76 percent of the annual requirement of 36 million as of the end of December 2021.
No matter how aggressive the PhilSys registration process is in far-flung communities, particularly in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas such as indigenous peoples communities, the turtle-paced delivery of PhilIDs defeats the purpose of transforming how services are delivered and accessed in the Philippines, and accelerating the country's transition to a digital economy.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. himself lamented the low turnout of PhilID card delivery.
"Kulang na kulang pa iyon (That is still not enough). We are going to digitize the bureaucracy. It all really depends on everyone having their own national ID," he was quoted as saying in a press conference.
It then brings to the question — How can the target 92 Filipinos have their national ID with a supplier that failed to meet the schedule of deliverables to the PSA? Had this been in a private corporation setting, the supplier had long been investigated, services terminated and penalized.
Wasn't the project awarded to a "favored" bidder who reportedly is beyond financially and technically qualified to handle an immense project?
Bagong Henerasyon Partylist Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy is right that the penalty clause in the service contract with the supplier and the contract's Terms of Reference should be reviewed considering its alleged 'shady' reputation.
Senator Grace Poe finds it unjustifiable to have people wait for six months to more than a year to get a national ID.
The unacceptable delay should not be blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic, it is just the data collection hence, the PSA ought to submit a concrete plan on what will happen to the national ID.
PSA's promise that it will deliver 30 million physical IDs and 20 million digital or e-IDs by end of 2022 remains to be seen. And it is only then that Philsys can be aligned with the national government's broader initiatives to promote inclusive economic growth.
