Marcos impatient over national IDs release delay; DICT acting on it

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has become impatient over the delays in the release of national IDs, Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan John Uy said on Wednesday, adding that the DICT is addressing the matter.

At a Palace press briefing, Uy expressed confidence that a significant number of digital IDs could be released by the end of this year.

"So, a lot of delays have already happened and there are many of our countrymen who have been complaining that up to this date, they have not yet received their national ID. And so, the President has expressed his impatience because a lot of things needed to be done and it’s all dependent on the deployment of a national ID," Uy said.

The DICT chief said the President has not issued any ultimatum to them as regards the completion of the distribution of the national IDs.

"Well, wala naman pong ultimatum. Kami na po ang nagbigay ng basically ng goal namin. Mga I think, we were only be able to be given access to the database just a month or two months ago. So, medyo ambitious po ang ating goal na last July lang tayo nabigyan ng access eh we're hoping that by year end makaka-deploy tayo [ng mga national IDs]," Uy said.

(There's no ultimatum. We were basically the ones who set our goal. We were only given access to the database just a month or two months ago. Our goal is somewhat ambitious because we were only given access last July so we're hoping that by year end, we could deploy [national IDs].)

"Kung ang PSA [Philippine Statistics Authority] po, inabot ng apat na taon, eh hindi pa ho nila matapos-tapos 'yung deployment (It took four years for the PSA to distribute, they are not yet finished). We're very optimistic, I believe in the capabilities of our people in order to that," he added.

It was in August when Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said announced that the DICT would be in charge of the production of the e-PhilIDs.

So far, Uy mentioned that data of around 80 million individuals have already been in their data with the help of the PSA.

"I think they have captured about 80 million identities already and it’s in their database. So, for us to be able to convert it to a digital format, we needed access to that database so that we can deploy it on a digital platform," Uy said.

"So, that was the discussion and that was where we reported to the President as to how we are going to adopt it on a digital platform so that it can eventually be used for all our online transactions," he added.

Parallel with physical IDs

Asked if the Philippines is now on a shift towards digital ID, Uy explained that the release of the digital IDs would be parallel to the physical IDs as they will still be printed.

Uy said the public has been impatient as well regarding the delays of the release of the physical IDs.

"As far as we’re concerned po, we’re doing this in parallel because the public has grown impatient… Medyo, I think four years na po o five years ‘no delayed iyong—kayo, wala pa kayong mga ID ninyo (I think it's already four or five years that the IDs have been delayed). So medyo… the public has grown impatient and they don’t want to wait forever to get the physical ID. So, kaya sabi namin, i-parallel na natin," Uy said.

Uy vowed that the DICT would do its best to release the digital versions of the national IDs.

"So habang they’re taking their time to do the physical printed ID ay we will also deploy our digital ID dahil mas mabilis po ito. Ang objective po namin, sana may magandang Christmas gift ang ating mga kababayan na by end of the year eh ma-deploy natin significantly iyong digital ID," Uy said.

(As they take time to do the physical printed ID, we will also deploy our digital ID because this is faster. Our objective is that we could give a better Christmas gift to our kababayans that by the end of the year, we can deploy our digital IDs.)

The PSA issued over 70 million Philippine Identification System IDs (PhilIDs) and ePhilIDs as of June 2023.

In a statement, PSA said it reached another milestone in implementing the PhilSys with 70,271,330 registered persons under the PhilIDs and ePhilIDs as of 16 June 2023. —KG, GMA Integrated News