MANILA – A national identification system gathered “extremely strong” approval from majority of Filipinos, the latest Social Weather Stations survey showed.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed on Aug. 6 the Philippine Identification System Act of 2018, which provides for, among others, the unification of vital information on citizens in one system.
Under the law citizens will be provided with a Common Reference Number included in a multipurpose ID card.
In the survey conducted more than a month before Duterte signed the law, 73 percent of the respondents approved of the national ID system.
Only 18 percent disapproved while 9 percent “did not know enough to give an opinion,” showed the survey held from June 27 to 30 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.
All these amounted to a net approval score of +55, which the SWS classified as “extremely strong.”
“Net approval of having a National ID system in the Philippines was highest in Metro Manila at an extremely strong +60,” the SWS said.
Net approval was also “extremely strong” in both urban and rural areas at +58 and +53, respectively, it added.
Moreover, three out of five Filipinos said the national ID system will be a big help to them with 32 percent called it “a very big help,” the survey showed.
Sixty-one percent agreed that the government will protect their private information while 49 percent trust that the national ID will not be used against critics of the government.
In addition, trust in the government to protect private information was “extremely strong” at +64 among those satisfied with Duterte, the SWS said.
Philippine Statistics Authority undersecretary Liza Grace Bersales welcomed the SWS survey.
“I’m very happy to hear that news,” Bersales, PSA national statistician and civil registrar general, said in a Palace economic press briefing on Wednesday. (PNA)
