Mary Clare Coronado, the PSA 7 information officer, told SunStar Cebu Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, that they target to have 7,157,714 registrants for the national ID by the end of the year.
Data from the PSA 7 as of Sept. 30 showed that of the seven million target population, 5,915,683 individuals, or about 83 percent, had already registered.
About 2,258,986, or about 38 percent of the 5.9 million registered individuals, have already received their physical IDs.
Meanwhile, around 1,437,920 opted to have the printable national ID or ePhilID, but only about eight percent, or 112,805, has become available.
Coronado said an ePhilID is a proactive option given by the PSA to those individuals who wish to immediately enjoy the validity of their national IDs while waiting for the physical one to be delivered.
It will have the same function as the physical national ID. One needs to ensure that his PhilSys Number (PSN) is already available by checking it on https://appt.philsys.gov.ph and entering one’s transaction reference number (TRN) to have the ePhilID, she said.
Delay and backlog
Coronado said the delay in ID deliveries and availability may have been because of the heightened verification and authentication process.
She said that for the ID to become available, the applicant’s information, biometrics and demographics (age, race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education and employment) must be verified and authenticated further.
“Individuals can track the status of their national IDs by logging into tracking_phils.gov.ph, a Philpost site, and those who would want the printable form at prn-verify_phils.gov.ph, where they could book an appointment to an accessible center to print their IDs right when they receive an SMS (text message) that it is already available,” said Coronado.
Coronado said there are five accessible centers in Cebu–SM Seaside City Cebu, SM City Cebu, Ayala Center Cebu, Ayala Malls Central Bloc (Cebu IT Park, Apas, Cebu City), and the PSA Cebu Office in Gaisano Capital South.
Coronado said one way they encourage people to register and avail themselves of the national ID aside from letting them go to the PSA office is to have the registration conducted in the barangays.
She said they timely tracked down those barangays with low registration turnouts and coordinated with them to implement the mobile registration.
Coronado said children as young as five years old could already avail themselves of the national ID.
The framework for a Philippine national identity card system was established when President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the Philippine Identification System Act (Republic Act 11055) on Aug. 6, 2018.
Though the national ID is not mandatory, PSA 7 said it would be much faster and seamless to transact with any government or private entity using a single national ID. (HIC)