PSA-7 conducts house-to-house visit to encourage more people to secure PhilSys IDs

Engineer Ariel Florendo, regional director of the Philippine Statistics Authority in Central Visayas (PSA-7)  talked to the reporters on July 13, 2023, to provide updates on the implementation of the national ID program in the region. | CDN File photo by Niña Mae Oliverio

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Philippine Statistics Authority in Central Visayas (PSA-7) has started the conduct of house-to-house visit to encourage more people to apply for the issuance of a national ID.

They also do “mobile registration” in rural areas to bring their services closer to residents, according to Engineer Ariel Florendo, the PSA-7 director.

Florendo said they had to innovate after they noticed that only very few people now visit their office to register for the National ID System.

“What we are conducting is we go house-to-house, we visit institution[s], we visit even national offices,” Florendo said in an interview on Thursday, July 13.

Registration started in 2020.

To date, at least 79.9 million Filipinos are now registered under the National ID System, of which 6.3 million are from Central Visayas.

Florendo said they hope to increase to 6.8 million the total number of registered Central Visayas residents by the end of the year.

A good project

The PSA-7 director said he understands that many are hesitant to registered for the issuance of a national ID because of the need to ensure data privacy.

Others no longer find the need to secure a PhilSys ID because they already possess other government-issued IDs.

Florendo said that the government’s national ID project was a “good project” because PhilSys IDs can be used anytime and anywhere.

Securing a PhilSys ID will especially be beneficial to the poor, most of whom do not own government-issued IDs.  PhilSys IDs may be used when availing of government services like the issuance of birth, marriage, and death certificates, among others.

“Register lang mo kay wala may mawala,” he said.

According to Florendo, those who are qualified to register are those aged five years old and above.  They do not register those who are below five years old because their physical features are still “changing.”

5 million IDs

Florendo said that as of July 10, 2023, their office already issued about five million IDs, of which 3.3 million were PhilSys IDs while about two million were ePhil IDs.

ePhil IDs are used in lieu of the physical ID cards.

The PSA-7 director gave the assurance that these have the same validity and functionality as the physical ID cards.

“Instead of just rely[ing] on the physical ID, we had this innovation or strategy that we can also print on paper. In other words, once you have the paper and you have the card, you have two IDs already that you can use,” he said.

Florendo admitted that they had been getting complaints from registrants who are yet to receive their physical IDs.

He is urging holders of ePhil IDs and those who are yet to receive their ePhil or physical IDs to visit the nearest PSA-7 registration center for follow up.

“All they have to do is give the transaction number and once we search it kung available siya, even though the card has not yet arrived to them, amo na na i-print,” he said.

Cause of delay

Florendo said delays can’t be avoided in the issuance of the PhilSys IDs because of the need to check and verify the information provided by the applicants.

“Basig ma double unya ang pag [produce] because of the identity of the person. [Basin] ma double unya ang pag sort out. Same person with different names or what ba,” he said.

Just like in the application of a clearance from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), they also double-check the identity of the applicant.

In addition, he said, delays are normal especially since it was the first time for the Philippine government to implement a national ID program.

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/dcb