The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has successfully printed 46 million national IDs out of the 80.5 million Filipinos who registered for the Philippine Identification System.
Fred Sollesta, the PSA PhilSys Registry Office OIC and Deputy National Statistician, reported that PhilPost has already distributed 39 million of these national IDs. Another 1 million physical cards are on their way to the National Capital Region.
In an interview with TeleRadyo Serbisyo, Sollesta explained that there were some delays in printing IDs at the Bangko Sentral. He mentioned that they’ve managed to print 46 million IDs out of the 80 million registrants.
To address these delays, the PSA introduced ePhil IDs, which serve as an alternative credential. These digital IDs have the same functions as the physical cards printed by the Bangko Sentral.
Sollesta also acknowledged that the printers at the Bangko Sentral struggled to handle the high volume of physical cards that needed to be produced.
In related news, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) mentioned earlier that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is becoming impatient with the slow rollout of national IDs.
Furthermore, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) announced last month that the responsibility for managing and producing digital national IDs has been shifted from the Philippine Statistics Authority to the DICT.
Source: PhilNews24 | September 14, 2023
