The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that the number of people who registered to get a Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) or National ID was one of the reasons why the printing of ID cards was delayed.
“The reason for the delay [in printing] is the high volume in the registration… We didn’t expect it,” said PSA chief Dennis Mapa in the virtual press briefing.
According to Mapa, as of October 17, 74.28 million Filipinos have registered with PhilSys or undergone the acquisition of demographic and biometric information.
“This already represents 98.7% of the population ages 15 years and above… and represents 80% of target [registrants] for 2022,” he continued.
Of that number, a total of 51.23% underwent backend identity verification, “to determine if the person registering is unique.”
According to Mapa, the PSA has already given a unique 12-digit PhilSys number to more than 45 million registrants, out of the 51 million who underwent the backend verification process.
“Out of this, we have already dispatched/turned over to the Philippine Post Office a total of 22.55 million PhilID cards,” continued the official.
Of that number, Mapa said that PhilPost has sent 17.6 million PhilID cards until October 14.
PSA: Printing of Nat’l ID delayed due to number of registrants
Mapa considers the current backlog to be around 19 million.
“The exceptional pace of meeting the registration target created a substantial gap among the accomplishment rates of the registration which is moving very fast, the backend identity verification, and subsequently the delivery of the PhilIDs,” he explained.
In the aforementioned briefing, Information and Communications Undersecretary Dennis Villorente announced that the said backlog would be resolved within four months.
While waiting for the actual national IDs, Mapa said PSA had created a digital version of PhilSys or ePhilID, which can be printed at PSA registration centers.
“The issuance of printed ePhilID is to complement the delivery of the physical cards from the printing facilities of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) so that the registered person can immediately utilize the benefits of the PhilSys such as faster and seamless transaction in accessing financial and social protection services requiring proof of identity subject to authentication,” the official said.
Mapa also said that PSA is working with BSP to add two more lines for printing facilities.
The PSA plans to increase the printing capacity of national ID cards to 130,000 per day from 80,000 per day.
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