Philippines faces 36 million backlog in ID cards

The Philippines are still facing a 36 million backlog in distributing the country’s national ID cards which will need additional funds to solve it, according to the country’s main identity agency.

The country’s Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has so far issued only 55 million physical cards. This is despite completing a 99 percent successful registration of 91.7 million Filipinos by the end of 2024.

The backlog has been piling up since August when the Philippines’ central bank canceled its contract with ID card producer AllCard Inc. (ACI) for failing to deliver the cards on time. The central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), is yet to secure a new supplier, according to Rosalinda Bautista, the PSA’s deputy national statistician.

The backlog has been discouraging some Filipinos from registering in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), says Bautista. However, residents are still able to acquire the national ID in other formats, news outlet ABC-CBN reports.

The identity agency is also working on integrating the national ID database with more government agencies and services. In December, the agency signed an agreement with Pilipinas Teleserv, the customer service company that operates the PSAHelpline.ph online platform. The platform allows Filipinos access to civil registry documents such as birth, death and marriage certificates.

National ID database as a tool for financial inclusion

Aside from government services, the Philippine Statistics Authority is also taking upon itself the task of boosting the adoption of the national ID system among financial institutions.

Among the organizations that have so far accepted the Digital National ID is Asia United Bank (AUB) and its e-wallet service, HelloMoney. The bank was the first to fully integrate with the National ID eVerify for bank account opening and loan applications, the PSA announced in December. Other financial institutions include the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and its app VYBE which is using the digital ID for account opening and verification.

“As many of our transactions are now online, the Digital National ID allows registered persons to have valid proof of identity readily available on their mobile phones for use in transactions,” says PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis S. Mapa.

Aside from enhancing service access and streamlining identification processes, the drive is set to promote financial inclusion, particularly in rural areas.

Earlier in January, the PSA also launched a National ID Kabalikat project aimed at onboarding rural financial institutions. The project is aimed at rural banks, microfinance institutions and remittance centers. The agency has so far conducted National ID Kabalikat in four locations: Roxas City, Capiz, Antipolo City, Rizal, Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, and Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija.

Philippines fight fraud with biometric ID system for people with disabilities

The Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has announced a pilot project for a unified ID system for persons with disabilities (PWD), running from January to June 2025.

The new unified PWD ID will include security features such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips while users will be required to submit biometrics, according to GMA News.

Currently, the country has several forms of IDs for disabled people depending on the local government unit. The lack of uniformity has helped the proliferation of fake documents that are now being sold online for as little as 500 Philippine pesos (US$8.58).

Fake PWD IDs have cost the country 88.2 billion Philippine pesos (US$1.5 billion) worth of taxes in 2023, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian told the Senate in December last year. According to his office’s estimates, around 8.5 million people have been using fake IDs compared to 1.8 million owning “legitimate” documents.

Fakes are often used to obtain discounts at restaurants, pharmacies and healthcare institutions.

“These fake PWD IDs are causing a lot of economic damage in terms of foregone revenues and unqualified discounts,” says Gatchalian.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  financial inclusion  |  identity management  |  national ID  |  PhilID  |  Philippines