President Rodrigo Duterte said the implementation of the national ID system would have been the game-changer in the distribution of the government’s emergency cash distribution amid the continuing enhanced community quarantine brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his address late Monday night, Duterte said the government’s social amelioration program for low-income families had been delayed due to issues including discrepancies in the lists of beneficiaries of the national government and the local government units.
He said that with the national ID system, there could have been order and equal distribution of aid to millions of families affected by the crisis, as he blamed the leftist group for blocking the way for its implementation.
The President said the public should not blame the government because leftist groups stood in the way for the execution of the national ID system.
“The national ID could have helped but the left did not like the idea, that’s why we don’t have an ID system until now. We wanted to have an ID, if you believe in the leftist groups, the communists, it’s up to you, that’s the problem,” Duterte said.
“If we have the ID system we could have avoided these delays. All we need to do is to ask the DILG, Barangays and they can submit the list, show their IDs and we will give,” he said.
He said that many Filipinos don’t want to be listed, because they are not residents of a particular barangay when the census came, and were not included.
“You know it’s a — in the Comelec list, those flying voters, they can vote anywhere. Now we don’t know where they are. kung saan-saan kayo nagboto ayan. So that is really a problem. It is a problem that confronts government. Your ‘problema’, is our problem,” he said.
The President said that if there is only one ID system, the distribution of aid in this time of crisis could have been addressed.
Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys Act), or Republic Act No. 11055, in August 2018.