AMID growing complaints on the continued delays in the distribution of the national identification (ID) card, the Philippine Postal Corporation (PhilPost) yesterday said it has already delivered around 14.033 million ID cards as of this month.
Some 700,000 IDs are also on their way to their owners, said PhilPost Postmaster General and chief executive officer Norman Fulgencio during yesterday’s “Laging Handa” public briefing.
Fulgencio said delays in the distribution of the national IDs should not be blamed on PhilPost because “our job is just to deliver” what has been turned over to the agency.
“Ang trabaho po natin ay i-deliver iyan. Once na matanggap namin, kailangan naming i-deliver (Our job is to deliver [the IDs]. Once we get them, we need to deliver them already),” he said.
Fulgencio tossed the blame to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), which he said is in a better position to shed light on the delay.
Fulgencio said that once they get the IDs, their longest delivery time is 30 days in far-flung areas, not six months or longer as complainants have claimed.
Fulgencio said PhilPost has been coordinating with local government units, particularly barangay officials, in case recipients of the IDs are not in their homes to receive them.
Under the current guidelines, only the owner of the ID card is allowed to receive it.
He advised those who have yet to get their IDs to check the status of their cards at the agency’s website (http://tracking.phlpost.gov.ph). If the applicant’s name does not appear in the status bar, it means that PhilPost has yet to receive his/her ID card from the PSA.
President Marcos last week met with the National Economic Development Authority and discussed how to expedite the distribution of the national ID cards, which he wants to be delivered and ready to be used by the public by early next year.
PSA data shows that at least 55 million Filipinos have already registered for the national ID system.
Former President Duterte signed the Philippine System Identification Act (PhilSys Act) into law in 2018, which mandated the creation of a single official identification card and single national identification number for all citizens that they can use in all transactions.
