National ID System To Be Launch In March 2019

The Philippine Government is set to implement the National Identification (ID) system on March 2019.

“That’s March next year for the start of the registration of one million individuals under the Unconditional Cash Transfers but our timeline to start the registration of 25 million (Filipinos) will be around September,” says Lisa Grace Bersales, head of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

According to Bersales, they will start to enroll those citizens who don’t have any valid government-issued ID, indigenous people, beneficiaries of PantawidPamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), senior citizens, and persons with disabilities.

The Philippine Statistics Authority is also set to publish all the implementing rules and regulations that accompany the release of this Identification System (PhilSys) Act.

The Republic Act. No. 11055 or the PhilSys Act, creates an identification platform for all Filipino citizens and those foreign nationals living in the Philippines. The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is the one tasked to implement this system.

By the third week of October, the PSA will have an announcement regarding the opening for the bid procurement for the national identification system.

“We will publish the technical specifications. We hope that by December, we will already be able to finish the procurement. This means we will have already awarded the PhilSys,” says Bersales.

Bersales also noted that there will be a competitive bidding process for the said procurement.

“If we do competitive bidding, we will be able to manage our timeline of procuring the system and awarding it before the year-end,” she added.

The Philippine ID is expected to contain biometric information such as the recipient’s full name, date of birth, sex, blood type, place of birth, nationality, address, and other optional information such as mobile number, email address and marital status.

According to the PhilSys Act, all the information in this ID must be kept securely by the holder because it is highly confidential.