Philippines conducts biometric registration of vulnerable people, total hits 29M milestone

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has confirmed it carried out a Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) mobile registration initiative to issue digital ID to street dwellers, vulnerable children, families, and ‘indigenous peoples.’ Registration is expected to speed up overall as well, with the PSA accepting a call from the Philippine President to collaborate with the private sector.

According to an announcement from the agency, PSA operated the registration during the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) special protection program caravan on December 22, 2022.

“Beneficiaries of social protection programs have always been our priority in the implementation of PhilSys and will continue to be as we further implement PhilSys, from registration to use cases,” comments PSA undersecretary Dennis S. Mapa.

Additionally, PSA recently announced a new milestone in printing PhilSys identification cards (ePhilID).

In fact, the Authority would have issued almost 29 million PhilSys identification cards and more than 15.7 million electronic IDs as of January 13. This comes weeks after the PSA said it had issued the printable version of the national digital ID to 10 million people in December 2022.

“Given the 75.8 million Filipinos who have already registered to PhilSys, we are eager to collaborate with the private sector to further accelerate our progress in expanding our use cases,” Mapa says in the statement. “We want our registrants to immediately reap and enjoy the benefits of PhilSys, as a digital ID system.”

The PSA was called on to involve the private sector in the digital ID scheme by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last week, in order to speed up issuance.

The executive also explained that the rapid increase in the issuance of the new IDs is partially due to a new house-to-house distribution strategy, as well as a pilot implementation of a website allowing registered Filipinos to download a PDF copy of their ePhilID on their mobile devices.

Finally, Mapa said PhilSys would eventually support electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) checks in the future. This will allow registered individuals to share their ePhilID data with other parties, including government agencies with frontline services, banks, and remittance centers.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  identity management  |  national ID  |  PhilID  |  Philippines  |  social security