NEDA: DICT to be in charge of digital national IDs

The Department of Information and Communications Technology will soon be in charge of the production of e-PhilIDs, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said on Wednesday.

At a Palace press briefing, Balisacan said the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) would continue with the production of the physical IDs.

"There’s now an agreement between the Philippine Statistics Authority and the DICT to transfer the provision of digital ID to DICT while PSA will continue with its physical ID production and distribution," Balisacan said.

"And I think, we are more than halfway in the physical ID but I said we want to speed up the digital ID so that sana before the end of the year... everyone will have a digital ID," he added.

Balisacan said it was important for Filipinos to have these IDs to "reduce transaction cost in government as well in the private sector."

More than 65 million physical and virtual national identification cards (IDs) have been issued by the PSA as of May 2023.

Of the figures, 31,204,200 were delivered as of May 19, while 33,846,182 ePhilIDs were issued as of May 20. —NB, GMA Integrated News