National ID registrants now over 25M — PSA

March 26 ------ Over 25 million Filipinos have registered in the Philippine Identification System or PhilSys since its launch in October last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said. The PSA reported on March 23 that additional 15,083,353 registrants have completed the system’s Step 1 registration since its expansion to all provinces this year. The number was based on manual counts from PSA Field Offices and covers across 81 provinces and all areas in the National Capital Region (NCR).

This brought the total Step 1 registrants to 25.7 million Filipinos since its rollout in October 2020, the PSA said.

Step 1 involves the house-to-house collection of demographic information of low-income household heads and appointment setting for the next step.

Step 2 includes the validation of supporting documents and capture of biometric information, such as fingerprints, iris scans, and front-facing photographs at registration centers.

“We are optimistic that we will achieve our 2021 target given our pace in reaching the 15 million mark for Step 1 Registration this quarter,” PSA Undersecretary Dennis S. Mapa, national statistician and civil registrar general, said in a statement. “We will ramp-up our operations and continue to adjust our strategy in light of the pandemic to ensure the safety of our registrants and registration staff,” he added. Asst. Sec. Rosalinda P. Bautista, deputy national statistician of the PhilSys Registry Office (PRO), said PSA also aims to make the Step 1 Registration more accessible by launching an online portal so registrants can complete the step without leaving their homes.

“We thank the public for embracing the PhilSys program and we hope that this enthusiasm continues as we open the PhilSys online portal soon. The demand for this online registration is critical in realizing the goals of PhilSys so Filipinos can enjoy its uses and benefits,” Bautista said. PSA recorded 10.6 million registrants for the national ID across 32 provinces from Oct. 12 to the end of December last year, surpassing its initial goal of 9 million registrants.

Source: mb.com.ph