Senator Bato dela Rosa on Monday, September 25 suggested a halt in the printing of physical Philippine Identification (PhilID) cards or national IDs and issue digitalized IDs instead.
During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance, Dela Rosa cited that shifting to fully digital would save the government money.
"Kung hirap tayo mag-produce ng hard copy, siguro, pwede nating i-stop iyon [and] we'll go digital. Maka-save pa ng pera ang gobyerno kung i-stop iyon. Lahat naman ng Pilipino, merong cellphone," he said.
"So, pwede na nila ipakita nila yung cellphone nila, oh eto yung aking national ID in my transactions. Maka-save pa tayo ng pera," dela Rosa added.
Senator Sherwin 'Win' Gatchalian supported his fellow Senator's suggestion, saying that going digital will save a lot of time and will resolve logistics issues.
"Kasi yung physical cards, you have to deliver. Kapag wala doon [ang recepient], ibabalik nila. Minsan nakuha ng iba [ang national ID] tapos nawala. Things like that," he said.
However, National Statistician Dennis Mapa noted that while the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is headed to go fully digital, data shows that not all Filipinos have a smartphone.
According to the National Statistician, Filipino family household only has one smartphone.
In addition, Mapa said connectivity issues prevail in some island barangays and municipalities.
"These are the areas that we are actually doing priority deliveries kasi kailangan nila yung physical card. So in the transition, the physical cards are still needed. But moving forward, digital ID is really the way to go. But right now, hindi pa lahat ay may smart phone," he added.
Dela Rosa then suggested that the PSA may print the national ID printed in a paper.
"Just to find ways, i-avail natin sila ng papel na i-print nila. Oh kayong mga taga-bundok, punta kayo sa Poblacion, may signal doon, magpa-print kayo ng papel to make things easy for Filipinos. Mag-cite ako ng examples, like LTO, yung problema nila sa printing ng lisensya, paggawa ng plate number," he said.
Based on PSA's latest data, 78.12 million out of the 80.54 million Filipinos registered have received their national IDs as of September 1.
"To date, the Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) has delivered 38.51 million PhilIDs and the PSA has already issued 40.61 million ePHilIDs which can already be used for transactions needing proof of identity and age," the agency said.
