Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) targets to register about 774,485 Bataeños aged 5 and above in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys).
As of June 30, a total of 575,333 or 74.29 percent of the target population has been registered.
“PSA has been facing difficulty in achieving our target for the year due to three reasons; one is the late distribution of the physical IDs of those who have registered with us. This leads the public to become uninterested to register due to the delay in distribution and quality of the physical PhilSys IDs,” PSA Bataan Registration Officer Maria Rosario Dela Rosa shared.
Other reasons are lack of supporting documents such as birth certificate particularly those who belong to low-income families, and conflict in schedule of mobile registration in remote areas.
In line with this, PSA Bataan has launched a Birth Registration Assistance Project to help individuals who are facing difficulty in presenting required documents to prove their identity in order to process their PhilSys registration.
“In spite of these challenges, PSA has been closely coordinating with our local chief executives in different towns and city to help us encourage more Bataeños to register and get their PhilSys IDs,” Dela Rosa furthered.
They also target Indigenous Peoples communities and Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs).
As of May 2022, PSA Bataan registered a total of 212 PDLs in the towns of Orani and Dinalupihan.
Relative to this, about 212,387 PhilSys ID have already been delivered in the province, with priority given to low income families who registered in 2020 and 2021.
While many are still waiting for their physical IDs, the agency is set to launch the PhilSys mobile app wherein an alternative and digital version of the ID can be used for future transactions.
Republic Act No. 11055, otherwise known as the Philippine Identification System Act, aims to establish a single national identification system for all citizens and resident aliens of the Republic of the Philippines.
Signed into law by former President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2018, the valid proof of identity provided by the PhilSys shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, and shall be a social and economic platform that promotes seamless social service delivery and strengthening of financial inclusion for both public and private services.
As a foundational digital ID system, PhilSys will transform how services are delivered and accessed in the Philippines, and accelerate our transition to a digital economy, including to enable presenceless, paperless and cashless transactions.