The head of the National Economic and Development Authority said the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), or the national ID system, will push for financial inclusion and secure social protection.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said in his report to President Rodrigo Duterte that Land Bank of the Philippines will co-locate in all PhilSys registration sites with the goal of opening bank accounts for all low-income Filipinos by the end of 2021.
It will help Filipinos without bank accounts to create one, Chua said.
The provision of social protection services, such as the distribution of financial assistance during calamities or any crisis, will also be hastened through the Philsys, he said.
“They will no longer queue in the distribution center. So it would be a huge help in the future,” Chua said.
The Philsys project will likewise help in the national vaccination program.
“Once the inoculation for priority groups under category C, which is the general population, starts by the end of the year, the National ID can help in registering the general public,” he said.
The government is rolling out the PhilSys registration process in three phases due to the coronavirus disease pandemic that requires safety and health protocols.
The first phase of the PhilSys involves the collection of the registrant’s information like full name, gender, date, and place of birth, blood type, and address.
Chua said the government conducted house-to-house visits to collect demographic data of targeted nine million individuals, composed of at least five million low-income household heads and the rest, adult household members.
The second phase involves capturing 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 and a 16-digit PhilSys card number.
The first batch of 956 PhilID cards will be delivered this week.
Chua said some 33.4 million Filipinos have already registered for the Step 1 process.
Seventy-one provinces are currently facilitating the Step 1 registration for PhilSys towards the target to register 50 to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year.*PNA
