SEN. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada is pushing for the establishment of an online death verification system to address bogus claims, “ghost voters,” and identity theft.
Estrada said the proposed measure seeks to establish the Philippine Death Check (PDC) Register, a centralized electronic database containing data on people’s death which will be registered with the Local Civil Registry (LCR), which in turn will be managed by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Under the proposed “Online Death Verification System Act,” the death of a person is required to be registered with the LCR and the information will be immediately uploaded with the PDC Register electronic system, while the PSA shall ensure safeguard the integrity of the PDC data from breaches and other modes of tampering for the purpose of committing fraud.
Estrada said the system will help purge the list of registered voters, noting that the names of dead people have been used by unscrupulous individuals to manipulate the results of national and local elections.
He likewise pointed out that there have been instances during Senate hearings that senators learned that the names of dead people have been used in fraudulent activities, such as in the case of the multi-billion bogus claims paid by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to dialysis patients.
“The ‘ghost dialysis’ scheme involving the filing of claims before PhilHealth on behalf of dead patients highlighted the weakness in the bureaucracy and provided an impetus for stronger anti-fraud mechanism,” he said.
“Panahon na para solusyunan ang bagay na ito (It is time that we put an end to this). Those funds that were intended for the poor and in actual need of medical assistance ended up in the hands of owners of private dialysis centers,” he added.
To establish an efficient, integrated, and centralized online death verification system, Estrada said the PSA shall be allowed immediate access to information from PhilHealth, the Commission on Elections, Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System, Home Development Mutual Fund, and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office “to ensure early detection and prevention of identity fraud.”
He added that the provisions of the Data Privacy Act of 2012 on the processing of personal information shall be strictly complied with.
Those who will be found committing an intentional breach of information shall be fined from P500,000 to P4 million, and will be meted a three to six years of imprisonment.
