SENATORS yesterday said issuing the digital version of the Philippine Statistics Authority-issued (PSA) national identification cards would be better and faster than printing the physical plastic cards.
During the hearing on the proposed PSA budget for next year, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa noted the long delay in the issuance of the physical IDs.
The head Dennis Mapa told senators that it will take until September next year before it can complete the delivery of the physical ID cards as its printers can only work on a certain number of IDs in a day.
Mapa said there are more than 81 million Filipinos who have registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), but only around 39.7 million have received their physical IDs, while 41.2 million have been issued IDs printed on paper.
Mapa said the backlog is due to the capacity of their printers, which can only print up to 80,000 a day.
The PSA is eyeing the cumulative registration of 101 million Filipinos by 2024, which it said would require a P1.6 billion budget.
Dela Rosa said since there are problems in printing the IDs, the government should now opt to digital IDs which will not only be faster but even save money for the government.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian supported Dela Rosa’s proposal, saying that physical ID cards are even prone to quality issues while a digital ID can be easily corrected if there are errors in information.
Gatchalian said digital IDs can also save the government “a lot of time” and “save the government from logistical issues.”
Mapa said going digital is “the way to go” even as he noted that not all Filipinos have smartphones.
“There are also areas where we don’t have much connectivity. These are areas where we are doing some priority deliveries because they need physical cards,” Mapa said in a mix of English and Filipino.
