Seven out of 10 Filipinos approve of having a national ID system, the latest Social Weather Stations survey shows.
The survey of 1,200 respondents was conducted from June 27 to 30, a month before President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippine Identification Systems Act on Aug. 6, mandating the creation of a single national ID.
Of the respondents polled, 73 percent said they approve of a national ID, while 18 percent disapproved of it. Some 9 percent said they did not know enough to have an opinion.
Asked if the national ID would help them, 32 percent said it will be a “very big help,” 28 percent said it would be a “big help,” 26 percent said it would be a “moderate help,” and 8 percent said it would help them a little. The remaining 5 percent said it would not help them at all.
Proposals to create a national ID system had failed in the past because of privacy concerns.
But the SWS found that the respondents believed that the government can be trusted to protect their private information (59 percent in Mindanao, 53 percent in the Visayas, 52 percent in the balance of Luzon, and 50 percent in Metro Manila).
Asked if the government might use the national ID against those who oppose it, 49 percent of the respondents said they trust the government not to do so; 39 percent were undecided, and 13 percent said they had little trust in the government.
The net approval rating of the national ID system was 55 percent, categorized by the SWS as “extremely strong.”
The SWS suvey had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Under the new law, all Filipino citizens and registered aliens need to register their demographic information and biometrics data in the system.
At the signing ceremony, the President asked the public to support the Philippine ID Act as it seeks to promote the efficient delivery of services to the people through a single ID that will be issued to all citizens and resident aliens.
“This ID, which will be called the ‘Phil-ID,’ will dispense with the need to present multiple IDs for different [government] transactions,” said Duterte, adding that the national ID system also reduces corruption, curtails bureaucratic red tape, promotes the ease of doing business, averts fraudulent transactions, strengthens financial inclusion, and creates a more secure environment for the Filipinos.
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General of the Philippine Statistics Authority Undersecretary Liza Grace Bersales said two classes of information would be collected: demographics and biometrics.
Demographics include full name, birthday, birthplace, sex, blood type, address, and citizenship. Then the four optional are marital status, e-mail address, and mobile number. Biometrics include facial imagery, iris scan, and 10-finger capture.
Bersales said that by 2019, some 25 million Filipinos and resident aliens would be registered in the national ID system.
In four years, she said, everyone would be registered and there would be no need for other ID cards.
An advocacy group, meanwhile, criticized the Labor department for insisting on an Overseas Filipino Workers ID, despite the approval of the national ID system.
While the OFW card was supposed to be free, the department was charging P720 for it, said Nicon Fameronag, president of the policy advocacy research outfit Lilac Center for Public Interest.
“This ID should be free. And with the implementation of the national ID, the OFW ID will be useless,” he said.
Fameronag said they welcome the new one ID system, saying the Philippines has joined the modern nations of the world by having a national identification system for all Filipino citizens.
Fameronag, a former Labor undersecretary said with the national ID law, the department’s ambitious and expensive OFW ID card is now “dead in the water.”
“For all intents and purposes, Secretary [Silvestre] Bello [III]’s OFW ID is dead and should no longer be revived,’ he said.