A member of the House minority bloc on Friday renewed his appeal to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to appoint a new head of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to accelerate the implementation of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) project.
Senior Deputy Minority Leader Paul Daza said this is “a golden opportunity” for President Marcos “to find the right individual who will rectify what has happened in the last four years.”
The PhilSys ID project is managed through the PSA—through now-retired Assistant Secretary Rosalinda Bautista, deputy national statistician of the PhilSys Registry Office.
Daza cited a Commission on Audit report for 2021 which revealed that the total actual deliveries of pre-personalized cards by the contractor, AllCard, was 27,356,750 pieces, or 76 percent of the annual requirement of 36 million, as of the end of December 2021).
Daza along with party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera of Bagong Henerasyon earlier raised the long list of complaints on the IDs, among them, the “erasable” print quality. “We have been receiving complaints on the ID, with people saying it is “PhilTiis,” Daza stressed.
Daza also highlighted the need to monitor disbursements, highlighting the project had been issued P28.4-billion worth of total appropriations. Thus far, P6.8 billion, or 24 percent, had already been appropriated since 2018.
Delays and efficient utilization of the people’s funds for the project were called out by Daza during his interpellation of the National Economic Development Authority’s (NEDA) 2023 budget. The slow and problematic implementation of the project, according to Daza, could be enough to reconsider the allocation of P2 billion for the PhilSys ID System in 2023.
The PSA is an agency attached to the NEDA. It is currently led by Undersecretary Dennis Mapa, PhD, who serves as the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General.
“It’s important that appropriations are based on judicious and efficient use of public funds. We encourage NEDA to ensure that disbursements are based on milestones but clearly, there are delays and problems in this project,” Daza stressed.
Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act, was signed into law in 2018 by former President Rodrigo Duterte. According to the PSA, more than 70 million have already been registered, while 21 million have received their physical IDs.
NEDA’s 2023 appropriations sponsor Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo acknowledged the current status of the project and, on behalf of the PSA, vouched for incoming improvements, as well as the completion of the deliveries of the IDs.
“We do not deny that there had been delays in this project. And that’s the reason why BSP [Central Bank of the Philippines] will engage an additional two printers. To expedite the process of producing the IDs, and ensure that 92 million Filipinos have their National ID by the end of June 2023, Daza said.