Where have all the national IDs gone?
Registering 74.28 million Filipinos in the PhilSys more than two months before the year ends, representing 80 percent of the target, deserves a pat on the back, but the delivery of their IDs doesn’t.
The rollout of the national ID system was off to a good start when the implementing rules and regulations were approved 60 days after Republic Act 11055, otherwise known as the "Philippine Identification System Act," was signed into law on 6 August 2018, aimed at establishing a single national identification for all citizens and resident aliens of the country.
Due to the public health emergency brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Philippine Statistics Authority — the lead PhilySys implementor — moved the mass registration from July to October 2020.
Despite the postponement, PSA reported that 50,014,382 Filipinos completed their Step 2 Registration as of 11 December 2021 — hitting the target for 2021. It was a good start, indeed.
The year 2022 for PhilSys is a different story. PSA reported that as of early July 2022, 14.3 million physical cards had been delivered. The target though is 36.4 million cards delivered by June 2022.
The Philippine Postal Corporation said it has been doing its job and has delivered more than 13.7 million PhilSys IDs nationwide as of 13 July 2022, which is equivalent to 94 percent of the 14.3 million ID cards turned over to them by the PSA for dispatch.
It makes sense that PhilPost only delivers what they receive, in fact, they work within the 30-day policy to deliver the Philsys ID in far-flung areas in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The PSA and PhilPost figure, for some reason, does not reconcile with that of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which was engaged by the PSA to produce the PhilID cards.
Data from the Commission on Audit showed the BSP delivered 27,356,750 pre-personalized cards as of 31 December 2021, or 76 percent of the 36 million required number of IDs for last year.
Where are the 13 million ID cards that did not reach PSA and PhilPost?
Given that the total actual deliveries of pre-personalized cards by BSP's contractor, AllCard Inc., was 27,356,750 pieces or 76 percent of the annual requirement of 36 million as of the end of December 2021, the figure obviously falls short of the 36 million annual delivery requirement.