The Philippine Statistics Authority has reported that more than 72 million Filipinos were already registered for the national ID.
The PSA said that its latest figures as of Aug. 26 showed that 72,348,546 Filipinos had completed the second step of the registration process which involves capturing biometric information such as fingerprints, iris and front-facing photographs.
The figure accounted for78.6 percent of the 92 million registration target for 2022, the PSA said.
Republic Act No. 11055, or the PhilSys Act, was signed into law in August 2018.
It sought to establish a single national identification system for all citizens and resident aliens of the Philippines and make the delivery of public and social services more efficient and transparent.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has said the national ID would play a huge part in his “digital transformation” goal for the government.
The government is “expecting” to issue 30 million physical IDs and 20 million digital IDs by the end of the year.
National statistician Dennis Mapa said the PSA was on track to achieve its goal of distributing 50 million IDs before the year ends.
“We would like to assure the public that we are on track in achieving our goal to provide immediate and improved access to financial and social protection services, especially to low-income individuals,” he said. John Ezekiel J. Hirro