Applying for a national ID is optional but the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is encouraging the public to have one, according to Assistant Secretary Rosalinda Bautista on Thursday.
Bautista said during her interview on DZBB that the government is highly encouraging the public to apply since having a national ID would benefit the owner for all future transactions.
“Sa batas po natin, lahat po ng Pilipino at resident aliens natin dito sa Pilipinas, pati po ang Pilipino na nasa abroad, ay puwedeng mag-apply para sa national ID pero voluntary. Voluntary po kasi ito,” she said.
“Pero ini-encourage po namin ang pag-apply at pagkuha ng national ID…Dadating po tayo doon sa time na lahat ng transaksyon sa government ay hihingian na po ng national ID ang isang tao,” she added.
The national ID system aims to unify and systematize the redundancy of various government IDs by launching a single national identification system.
Bautista explained that the implementation of the national ID system is currently in the first phase where registration officers will conduct house-to-house visits to low-income families.
The families to be visited by the registration officers were chosen from 40 provinces which posted the lowest income according to the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES).
But the PSA is targeting to visit only 32 provinces since other areas remain high-risk for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The PSA would next require the heads of the low-income families to visit the registration centers in the respective municipalities to fill out forms.
The final phase will be the issuance of the national ID.
Baustista noted that low-income families were the priority to give them better access to various services, such as but not limited to banking, which usually require many government IDs and documents.
The PSA is targeting to register at least 5 million people by the end of 2020.
Meanwhile, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said that the majority of Filipinos should have the national ID by 2022. RJ Espartinez