ILOILO City – Have you registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) yet?
If yes, you’re part of the 1,158,028 national ID registrants so far, both from this city and province of Iloilo.
As of Sept. 15, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed Iloilo had 318 registrants processed online; 648,263 were visited by PSA personnel in their private and government offices; while 509,447 were walk-ins at some PSA-Iloilo registration sites.
This was about 77 percent of the 1.5-million target of PSA-Iloilo.
Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act establishes a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens.
The national ID shall be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, enrolment in schools and the opening of bank accounts.
It will also boost efficiency, especially in dealing with government services where people will only need to present the national ID during transactions.
So far, PSA-Iloilo has received 132,484 national IDs from the Philippine Postal Corp. (PHLPost), PSA’s official courier partner, according to Nelida Amolar, Provincial Statistics Officer.
The actual number of IDs delivered, meanwhile, was only 92,154 or 7.96 percent of the total registrants.
There were instances, according to Amolar, “indi makita sang mailman post master ang address or ang person mismo.”
As for those who ask why until now they have not received their national IDs despite having registered in February or March, Amolar is asking for patience.
She herself, the first Ilongga to register with PhilSys in February, has not received hers.
“Ang una nga nag-register nagka-problema sa system integrator. Ang May and April (nga nagpa-register) ara na ‘ya ila,” she noted.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas prints the national IDs, while PHLPost is the distributor.
The PSA-central office also assured its local counterparts that the central bank is fast tracking their production.
Meanwhile, Amolar said registration at the PSA-Iloilo is ongoing.
To reach this, Amolar said they were bringing the registration to remote barangays to cater to the elderly as well as persons with comorbidities.
PSA-Iloilo opened registration sites in malls.
Moreover, Amolar said they have already allowed children five years old to 14 years old to register.
The Philippines targets 70 million registrants./PN
