PSA eyes 70M Pinoys registered in PhilSys by end-2021

FILE: Passengers observe safe physical distancing inside an LRT-1 train on Munoz station in Quezon City on Thursday (Dec. 17, 2020). The government has allowed the physical distancing inside public transportation by .75 meters between commuters. (PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.)

MANILA – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is eyeing to register 70 million Filipinos for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) by the end of 2021.

“PhilSys will be working on a total of PHP11.6 billion budget for 2021. This budget will enable the registration of 70 million individuals, including special population, by the end of 2021 through PSA-operated registration and registration agent-operated,” PSA Assistant Secretary Rosalinda Bautista said in a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday.

Bautista announced the government has surpassed its year-end goal of collecting demographic data from targeted nine million low-income Filipinos.

As of Dec. 14, about 9,004,546 low-income Filipinos have taken the first step of the registration phase.

“That’s 100.1 percent of our December 31 target which is nine million and we have already covered 4,429,288 households,” Bautista said.

She said the PSA conducts major preparatory activities for the second phase of registration which includes deployment of registration kits to the target provinces and the task force training for the Step 2 registration.

The PSA conducts an ongoing development of modules for the Philsys application (version 1) as well as the pre-registration and registration client modules.

PSA also continues to coordinate with the local government units (LGUs) of the 32 provinces identified for the initial pre-registration, to set up LGU-based registration centers.

As the PhilSys targets to facilitate the financial inclusion of the unbanked Filipinos, Bautista said about 89.3 percent of the registered individuals have remained unbanked.

Bautista said the PSA has recorded about 87.

4 percent of registered individuals do have supporting identifications which can be used in the second step of the Philsys registration.

She added that a total of 79.3 percent of the registrants signified that they have mobile numbers where the PSA could provide updates about their registrations in the PhilSys project.

Bautista reiterated the first step in the registration involves the collection of the registrant’s information including full name, gender, date, and place of birth, blood type, and address.

The second phase of the PhilSys registration will involve the capturing of biometric information such as fingerprints and iris scans.

The third step of the registration is the issuance of a physical ID card stored with a 12-digit PhilSys number or personal serial number (PSN) and a 16-digit PhilSys card number (PCN).

“The national ID is valid for life. It’s a permanent ID issued to a person and the PSN does not change,” said Bautista.

She added that a person can only update the given personal information.

While Filipino citizens no longer need to renew the ID, she said IDs for resident aliens would have a certain validity period.

Acquiring the national ID would be free for all Filipinos, Bautista said.

Data privacy, security

Bautista said that the PhilID system complies with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 wherein the collected data and information would automatically be encrypted into the server.

She assured the public that everyone’s personal data captured in the PhilSys registry will be protected against the possibility of hacking.

“Manakaw man yung ginagamit namin, wala po silang mababasa, ang mangyayari lang mawawala yung data pero hindi po mapapakinabangan yung data (Even if the data will be stolen, they won’t be able to read anything, the data will only be lost but it wouldn’t be useful for them),” she said.

Bautista added the PhilSys Data Privacy Manual and the Data Governance Framework further outline the privacy and data protection protocols and standards that will govern PhilSys operations.

The Privacy-by-Design features ensure that PSN-holders have full control over the access and use of their personal data.

Janssen Esguerra, Information System Analyst of the National Privacy Commission (NPC), said the Philsys has legal safeguards which are also stated in the laws. He said the PhilSys is covered by various provisions specific to security and privacy under the system’s Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).

To ensure it will be used accordingly for its specified purposes, Esguerra explained Philsys does not allow the processing of any personal information or data from internal systems and databases.

The Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) will be using a host-security module that is the same as what the other financial institutions are currently using which is covered with the highest level of security, said Aida Yuvienco, director for DICT’s Management Information System Services.

“We have classified our biometrics data to be highly sensitive and highly confidential,” Yuvienco said.

She added that the DICT will also conduct a regular vulnerability assessment and penetration testing throughout the implementation of the PhilSys project.

Yuvienco assured that the national identification has designed features for security and protection of personal data in the PhilSys registry.

Signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act, aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens.

The national ID shall be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, enrollment in schools, and the opening of bank accounts.

It will also boost efficiency, especially in dealing with government services where people will only need to present one ID during transactions.