ILOILO City – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is eyeing to pre-register one million residents of Western Visayas for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).
Director Marlene Alviar of PSA Region 6 said they will prioritize poor families.
Data gatherers wearing masks and face shields have been deployed since Monday to Iloilo, Capiz, Antique, and Negros Occidental. These four provinces were among the 32 priority areas.
The provinces of Guimaras and Aklan will be covered next year.
For this year, said Alviar, PSA is prioritizing areas in the region with the most number of low-income earners listed under the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction.
This will ensure that at least one member of the identified household has a valid ID and can open a bank account, Alviar said.
“Eventually, tanan-tanan kita may ara na nga national ID,” she added.
For the whole country, the target for pre-registration this year is five million Filipinos and 45 million for the whole 2021.
During the pre-registration, the enumerator will use tablets to gather the household head’s demographic information such as full name, gender, date of birth, place of birth, address whether Filipino or resident alien, marital status, mobile number, and email address.
The second step in the registration process is the biometric capturing of the pre-registered individuals in the registration center from Nov. 25 to Dec. 31 this year.
The PSA takes the lead in the conduct of the PhilSys registration, with the support of various government agencies and local government units.
Those registered with PhilSys will get a government-issued identification card and proof of identity.
The PhilSys national ID will contain a quick response code with the owner’s two fingerprint data and a unique 12-digit identification number called the PhilSys number assigned upon birth or registration to the PhilSys.
The National Economic and Development Authority earlier said the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to fully automate the country’s data gathering and statistical system./PN
