The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday said it continues to support the government’s national ID program as its official printer and will face graft complaints against its officials.
In a statement, the BSP said it will address the “complaint filed with the Ombudsman relative to the procurement for the printing of cards for the National ID System” and that it is assuring the public that the BSP officials concerned “will respond in the proper forum once required in accordance with applicable rules.”
“(BSP) supports the rollout of the national ID as it is key to wider financial inclusion that promotes shared economic growth and the financial wellbeing of Filipinos,” said the BSP.
An organization Stop Corruption Philippines filed graft complaints against seven BSP officials including BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno who is currently on medical leave following a minor head injury, before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The BSP is scheduled to print up to 45 million of the national IDs this year, according to BSP senior assistant governor and head of the Security Plant Complex (SPC), Dahlia D. Luna. “But that is dependent on the volume of successful registration of personal data which the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will undertake in 2021,” she said earlier.
The government is targeting to register 70 million Filipinos for the national ID this year. In 2020, the BSP printed three million of the national IDs.
The memorandum of agreement between the BSP and the PSA designated the BSP to take charge of card production in a government-to-government deal. The MOA was signed in 2019 following approval of the Philippine Identification System or Philsys Act or Republic Act No. 11055.
BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno said in November last year that the SPC can print up to 154,000 blank cards per day. The national IDs, which are free, will cost the government P30 per card or a total of P3.4 billion.
In the meantime, government-run Land Bank of the Philippines announced Thursday that, with PSA, it will continue to back government financial inclusion agenda by providing registrants of PhilSys with their own transaction accounts.
"Our collaboration with PSA significantly advances our mutual thrust toward greater financial inclusion,” said Landbank president and CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo.
Landbank will be “co-locating with the PSA” the registration centers for the second step of the PhilSys registration to expand formal access banking and financial services. It cited a PSA report that more than 82 percent of more than 10.5 million registrants did not have transaction accounts.
Landbank will also be issuing Mastercard Prepaid Card to PhilSys registrants “without any transaction account free-of-charge through Landbank account opening booths at designated co-location areas.”