President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (right) receives his government-issued national identification card from National Economic and Development Authority Acting Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua at Malacanang on March 3, 2021, as Senator Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go looks on. (Presidential photo)

CALOOCAN CITY, March 4 (PIA) -- President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on Wednesday personally received his own Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) national ID.

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua personally handed over the ID to the President during a simple ceremony in Malacanang.

The national ID is free for all Filipino citizens and has no expiration date. The Chief Executive registered himself on the PhilSys platform in January 2021.

Duterte, in an earlier public address, emphasized that the distribution of the social amelioration program (SAP), amid the lockdowns, would have been expedited further if a national ID system had been put in place.

For its part, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in a recent social media post, said it is yet to announce the exact date on the start of the PhilSys registration process for the general public as it targets at least 70 million Filipinos signed up by the end of 2021.

As of March 1, the PSA said a total of 20,133,869 individuals nationwide have registered for Step 1 of the PhilSys registration process.

"The PSA aims to register the majority of the Filipinos by the end of 2022 and will open the registration to the general public in 2021. Further announcements on this will be made to ensure that the public is informed and ready for the line-up of registration activities of the PhilSys," the agency said.

Initial mass registration rollout

The PhilSys has initially rolled out the mass registration to targeted low-income Filipinos in 664 cities and municipalities in 32 provinces identified as "low-risk" areas for the coronavirus, which began on Oct. 12, 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, however, the PSA implemented the Philsys project in a three-step approach to protect the registration team and target registrants against the risks of infection.

Steps

Step 1 of the registration involves the collection of the registrant's information including full name, gender, date, and place of birth, blood type, and address.

The PSA conducted simultaneous house-to-house visits to collect demographic data of targeted nine million individuals composed of at least five million low-income household heads, while the rest are adult household members.

Step 2, on the other hand, involves setting up an appointment for the biometrics capture that includes fingerprint, iris scan, and front-facing photograph.

Step 3, meanwhile, is the issuance of a physical ID card stored with a 12-digit PhilSys number or personal serial number (PSN) and a 16-digit PhilSys card number (PCN).

The PSN and PCN will be generated after the validation process to avoid duplication of registration entries.

Signed into law by Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act, aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens. (PIA NCR)