The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the agency is on track to meet its target number of registrants for the national ID system by the end of the year.

In a statement, PSA said on Wednesday, July 7, that about 37.2 million Filipinos have completed Step 1 Registration with the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), or the collection of demographic information.

“Since its implementation in 2020, the PhilSys continues to attain project milestones towards registering 50 to 70 million Filipinos this year,” PSA said.

Initially started through a house-to-house data collection among low-income families in October 2020, the Step 1 Registration went online last April this year. There are also 415 registration sites opened for online appointment booking.

“PSA aims to open more in the coming weeks,” the statistics office said.

Meanwhile, about 16.1 million registrants have completed the Step 2 Registration, or the collection of biometric information such as fingerprints, iris scans, and a front-facing photograph.

Starting on a small-scale, gradual basis in January, PSA said Step 2 Registration is now in full swing in almost all provinces nationwide.

Aside from PSA Field Offices, local government units have also opened most registration center locations. Moreover, mall-based registration centers have also commenced operations in the second quarter.

“PSA aims to open more registration centers nationwide this July while maintaining strict compliance to health and safety protocols,” the agency assured.

As of July 2, there are 965 registration centers in 78 provinces operatioing for Step 2 Registration.

As part of its financial inclusion goal, PhilSys also partnered with the Landbank of the Philippines for co-location at 877 registration centers to allow registrants to voluntarily open a bank account after their Step 2 Registration.

“The aim is to ensure that at least one family member has a bank account for easier, safer, and contactless transactions including the distribution of financial assistance as part of the government’s response to COVID-19,” PSA said.

PSA reported that 4.4 million PhilSys registrants applied for a transactional account with Land Bank.

Meanwhile, PSA said that 343,742 Philippine Identification (PhilID) cards have been delivered to registrants via door-to-door in partnership with the Philippine Postal Corp. (PHLPost).

In total, 1.02 million cards have been released to PHLPost, which were produced and personalized by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and PSA, respectively.


Source: Manila Bulletin (https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/07/national-id-registration-in-full-swing-psa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=national-id-registration-in-full-swing-psa)