Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia called for the faster establishment of data centers to accommodate the increased number of registrants for the national ID system next year.
The Philippine Identification System Policy and Coordinating Council, chaired by the National Economic and Development Authority, met on Oct. 18 to discuss the early results of the pilot test registration held in September and identify potential bottlenecks and issues to be addressed.
“The data centers should already be in place right now, if not, at least by December so they are usable in early January 2020. We need to act more swiftly and ensure that we will have no delays in the
implementation of the National ID. We want to complete the entire process on schedule, i.e., by mid-2022,” Pernia said.
A total of 525 select individuals from the Department of Social Welfare and Development beneficiaries and Philippine Statistics Authority employees were registered during the pilot test registration from Sept. 2 to 25, 2019.
Based on the results from the pilot test, the PSPCC discussed ways to further reduce the processing time. Processing involves screening, demographic and biometric capturing, and printing of transaction slip.
PSA Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa said they would expand the number of registrants for the November to December rounds to capture more data especially for registrants at ages 60 and above to develop better-queuing strategies before the official exponential roll-out by June 2020.
For the card production, the PSA signed a memorandum of agreement with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. Under the agreement, the PSA will take charge of the database management, the accuracy of the personal information to be placed in BSP-produced blank cards and undertaking the personalization, quality checking, and distribution of the IDs.
Acknowledging the complexity of implementing a secure national ID system, Pernia said it was necessary for government agencies to collaborate and help hasten the implementation of PhilSys. He urged government agencies to overcome bureaucratic red tape, saying this was precisely what the PhilSys ID wanted to reduce.
“We know that budget is limited and that government procedures, rules and regulations can be very restrictive. But it is incumbent upon us to find new ways of doing things for all of us to be efficient and to make transactions hassle-free for citizens,” Pernia said.