House Deputy Minority Leader Bernadette Herrera filed a resolution seeking an inquiry in aid of legislation into what she described as an “inefficient, delayed, and faulty” rollout of the national ID system.
In filing House Resolution 471, Herrera said the government agencies in charge of the project—Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)—must be taken to task for their shortcomings.
The Bagong Henerasyon partylist nominee even suggested replacing the current PSA leadership due to “inefficiencies” pointed out in the implementation of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), which was supposed to be a means to improve the delivery of public services.
“An accountability mechanism must be established to allow a closer look into what went wrong, or what may still be improved, in the implementation of the national ID system,” Herrera said.
Established by Republic Act 11055, the PhilSys project seeks to promote inclusive coverage and enable better access to the most vulnerable groups such as the poor, people living in geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas, indigenous peoples, and persons with disabilities.
When the COVID-19 pandemic affected the country in 2020, then President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ordered the immediate implementation of the PhilSys project to aid in identifying the poorest households entitled to government cash aid during the lockdowns.
The BSP was then mandated to produce and deliver 116 million pre-personalized IDs from 2021 to 2023.
However, the Commission on Audit (COA) noted that as of December 31, 2021, the BSP was able to deliver only 27,356,750 pre-personalized cards, or 76 percent of the 36 million required number of IDs for last year.
Prior to this period, COA said the BSP only managed to deliver 8,764,556 personalized cards, a measly 17.53 percent of the 50 million required number of IDs for calendar years 2020 and 2021.
Herrera pointed out that apart from the delay in meeting the quota for the number of ID cards to be accomplished, there have been complaints about inaccuracy of personal information and blurry images on the cards, and that the IDs are no longer readable after about three months.
She also cited reports of hacking, which led to concerns that the personal data or sensitive personal information of the citizenry have been compromised.
It will be recalled that Senator Imee Marcos questioned why the government awarded the contract for the national ID system to a foreign firm with a bad track record.
Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on electoral reforms, said Indian firm Madras Security Printers and its Philippine partner Mega Data Corporation were the only qualified bidder for the Philippine identification system (PhilSys) project the bidding regulations were changed in the middle of the game.
Marcos said that according to the Philippine Computer Society Foundation data, the bidding for the national ID supplier needs an on-premises system wherein a data center is physically placed at a selected site. It was then changed and included remote hosting of data in a cloud-based system.
This change forced other bidders to back out, and Madras-Mega Data was the only one left.
Herrera said that the national IDs, if only delivered on time, could have been the reliable card for the expedient distribution of cash aid, fuel vouchers, health benefits, and other basic services.
“In fact, Senator Grace Poe, the chairperson of the Senate public services committee, even stated that the long wait of six months to over a year to get the ID is unjustifiable,” Herrera said.
Citing government records, Herrera said that only 21 million Filipinos have so far received their physical national ID cards out of more than 70 million who have already registered, thus jeopardizing the government’s target of 92 million cards delivered by June 2023.
According to COA, PhilSys contractor AllCard has only delivered 27.3 million ID cards as of December last year, which obviously falls below the 36 million annual delivery requirement.
The audit body also noted that out of the total P28.4 billion allotted for the PhilSys project, only P6.8 billion has been appropriated since 2018.
