Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III wants a Senate probe on the delay in the issuance of national IDs.
The senator filed Senate Resolution No. 585 to investigate the circumstances leading to the delay in the issuance of the national identification cards by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
“Given the unreasonably prolonged delivery, questionable usefulness, and substandard quality of the national IDs, there is already cause to believe that there is malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance on the part of the leadership in the PSA, the BSP, and other relevant agencies in fulfilling its mandate under Republic Act No. 11055,” Pimentel said in filing his resolution.
The resolution filed on May 2 directs the Senate Blue Ribbon chaired by Sen. Francis Tolentino to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the long-delayed issuance of the national ID cards.
“We are concerned about the delay in the issuance of these cards. It is crucial that the government takes immediate steps to resolve the issue and ensure that all citizens have access to their national ID,” Pimentel said.
He stressed the government should take swift action to address the issue and provide a clear timeline for when Filipinos can receive their national IDs.
According to Section 3 of Republic Act No. 11055, the Philippine Identification System or PhilSys was established primarily to provide a valid proof of identity for all citizens and resident aliens as a means of simplifying public and private transactions.
“Apart from the delay in meeting the quota for the number of ID cards to be accomplished, there have been complaints about inaccuracies of personal information and blurry images on the cards,” the resolution said.
In some cases, the IDs are no longer readable after three months.
The resolution cited the Commission on Audit (COA) findings that as of the end of 2021, the BSP delivered only 27,356,750 pre-personalized
cards or 76 percent of the 36 million required number of IDs for 2021.
The figure is far from the 116 million pre-personalized IDs that BSP has to deliver from 2021 to 2023.
“Even the usefulness of the ID is in question, as some financial institutions refused to recognize the national ID because it lacks the
holder’s signature,” Pimentel said in the resolution.