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By Gabriela Baron

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) are set to roll out a series of pilot tests for about 1 million to 2 million Filipinos in September.

The pilot tests will collect personal information and biometrics through a registration kit.

“Doon kukunin ‘yong demographic info like name, sex, date of birth, and biometrics info. Isang kit na parang computer pero may mga input.” DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio explained.

(It has demographic information like name, sex, date of birth, and  biometrics information. It is a kit that is computer-like but has inputs.)

The kit will be distributed to regional and provincial offices of PSA, local civil registry offices, Commission on Elections, Philippine Post, and other government agencies and will be sent to data centers of PSA after collection.

“September, mag-umpisa na to get information data using ‘yong makukuhang registration kit.” Rio added.

(We will start collecting data using registration kit on September)

The DICT is also planning to conduct citizen trainings on how to use the registration kits to make the succeeding procedures faster and efficient.

After the initial tests, DICT is eyeing to register 25 million to 30 million Filipinos.

“25-30 million ‘yong next sa timeline. Importanteng maumpisahan agad para ‘yong succeeding timeline, makaadjust agad kung may mga problema at para  mapabilis pa po.”

(We have a target of 25 million to 30 million Filipinos in our next timeline, so it is important that we start right away in order to quickly and easily make adjustments.)

The Usec also addressed identity theft and privacy breach concerns but assured that all private information will not be compromised.

“We are very much concerned on data privacy and of course cyber security. Ito’y mga private information na dapat hindi ma-breach at magkaroon ng  identity theft. Responsibility ho namin ‘yan.” he ended.

(We are very much concerned of data privacy and of course cyber security. These are private information that should not get breached and stolen. These are our responsibility.)

President Rodrigo Duterte signed the  National ID system into law on August 2018. The national ID shall contain a person’s Philippine Identification System number, photo, name, gender, blood type, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, and address.