Registration kits for nat’l ID system now available: PSA

FILE: Sample of the front design of the PhilSyS/Philippine Identification Document (ID) card. (Photo By Philippine Statistics Office – Philippine Information Agency, Public Domain)

MANILA – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is working on the components of the national identification system as the government targets to start registration by the last quarter of the year.

In a virtual roundtable discussion of the Integrity Initiative and the Makati Business Club on Thursday, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said registration kits are now available, while the automated biometric system has already been procured and the service provider is working on the authentication system that would be used to verify persons registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).

Mapa said the agency is still in the process of procuring the systems integrator (SI).

“The systems integrator is like the glue to make systems work,” he said. “So we have very good service providers that expressed interest in the procurement of the SI.

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Mapa added that the government would award the contract for the systems integrator next month.

The PSA, which is the primary implementing agency to carry out the provisions of the Philippine Identification System Act of 2018, has also identified the data centers for the PhilSys, which is under the Department of Information and Communications Technology. The primary data center is located in Subic.

The secondary data center and the recovery site have already been identified, according to Mapa.

“All data centers will be on board starting July 2020,” he said.

Mapa said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which signed a memorandum of agreement with PSA in October 2019, shall produce 116 million blank cards with security features for Philippine ID (Phil ID) within three years.

He added that the national ID could be distributed to the registrants in just two weeks.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Republic Act 11055 or PhilSys Act on August 6, 2018 that mandates the establishment of the Phil ID for all citizens and resident aliens of the country to make government and private transactions simpler and faster.