Sen. Angara Defends PSA in Delayed National ID Issuance: ‘There Are Some Cases With a Close Match’

Lawmakers addressed the issue over the delay of the national ID distribution during the deliberation of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) budget for 2023.

Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Francis Tolentino cited that the P1.925 billion budget was allocated to the agency for the operations and that they “apparently ha[ve] been [remiss] in performing their duties," the senator was quoted as saying in a report by CNN Philippines on Nov. 17.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel questioned the discrepancy in the issuance and delivery of the national ID cards. Some individuals received their cards in two months, while others are “very frustrated” with an almost two-year delay.

Senator Sonny Angara, who is the sponsor of PSA’s budget, explained that the agency is undergoing a “thorough process” to ensure the authenticity of the data, as well as the accurate distribution of cards to lawful Filipino citizens only.

The fingerprints and the iris scan are both included in the backend identity verification process. Senator Angara stated that both features have close match cases among registrants, which is why manual verification is required.

As of August 2022, more than 70 million Filipinos have registered with the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys). Only 27 million cards have been released, as Senator Angara mentioned on Nov. 17.

The PSA plans to distribute about 50 million IDs before the end of the year, which will consist of 30 million physical cards and 20 million digital IDs.