DICT eyes deploying digital national IDs by yearend

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 13) — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is targeting to roll out a "significant portion" of digital national IDs before 2023 ends after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed "impatience" due to delays in the issuance of physical cards.

Following an order from the chief executive, DICT Secretary Ivan Uy said the agency immediately crafted a plan for the deployment of digital national IDs, which would need access to the database of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA is tasked to capture the biometrics, facial recognition, and personal information of Filipinos.

So far, the PSA has captured 80 million identities, Uy noted.

"As far as we're concerned, we're doing this in parallel because the public has grown impatient and they don't want to wait forever for that physical ID," he said.

"By end of the year, ma-deploy natin significantly ang digital ID (we will significantly deploy the digital ID). Sa loob ng ilang buwan (In a few months), we will do our best to deploy that digital ID system," he added.

Uy said Marcos wanted to hasten its deployment as "a lot of things needed to be done and they're dependent on national ID." This includes assistance to the vulnerable sector, as well as fuel subsidy for affected workers, he said.

According to the PSA, more than 43 million PhilIDs were already dispatched as of Aug. 4.