DBM releases ₱419M for wages of national ID program workers

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 24) — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved on Thursday the release of ₱419.69 million to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for the payment of wages of contract of service or COS workers hired for the implementation of the Philippine Identification System.

The DBM said the amount was in response to the request of the PSA last March 7 for additional cash allocation for the salaries of the workers for the January to March 2023 period.

"We give prime importance to the timely release of salaries of government personnel […] Rest assured that as long as we receive the necessary requirements for such requests, DBM will immediately process," Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said in a statement on Friday.

The pre-registration for the national ID began in 2020.

In his State of the Nation Address last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the government targets to issue a total of 92 million IDs - both physical and digital - by the middle of this year.

More than 46 million physical and digital national IDs have been issued so far as of February.