Marcos orders PSA to speed up printing of digital nat’l IDs

FILE: A man (right) peers into a gadget for an iris scanning on his eyes for Step 2 of the registration process for the PhilSys or National ID system at a mall at the corner of Quirino and Regalado highways in Quezon City. (PNA photo by Ben Briones)

MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday directed the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to ensure the prompt printing of electronic Philippine IDs (ePhilIDs), the digital version of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ID.

“Let us print out as much as we can and then isunod natin ‘yung physical ID as soon as we can,” Marcos said in a meeting with National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and PSA officials.

He issued this reminder following issues over printing capacity such as the “late start of the flow of data and the volume of the data which is less than what is supposed to be”.

Currently, the data flow from PSA to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been rectified.

PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa, for his part, assured that his agency continues to work with the BSP in further expediting and boosting the volume of PhilID production and printing.

Mapa earlier pointed to the influx of registrants in the PhilSys for the delay in the printing of national ID cards.

In October, the PSA started the implementation of the printed digital version of the PhilID.

The PSA said it already issued over 2 million ePhilIDs at PhilSys registration centers nationwide as of November.

The printed ePhilID bears the same information as the physical PhilID card, containing the registered person’s demographic data, front-facing photograph, PhilSys Card Number (PCN), generation date and QR code.

It allows faster and more seamless transactions in accessing financial and social protection services requiring proof of identity, subject to authentication.

The PSA, an attached agency of NEDA, is the implementing agency responsible for the overall planning, management and administration of PhilSys, the government’s central platform for all citizen and resident aliens of the Philippines, according to Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Act.

Marcos earlier directed the PSA to issue 30 million PhilIDs by the end of 2022 and register 92 million of the country’s population in the PhilSys by mid-2023.