The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will continue to print the country’s national IDs or the Philippine Identification (PhilID) card all throughout the holiday break to achieve its target of 50-70 million IDs produced for this year.
The BSP, which issued this statement on Wednesday, Dec. 29, did not disclose the volume or number of IDs they have printed so far.
The BSP reported instead that as of December 10, some 4,417,149 Filipinos have received their PhilID cards, which was the end of a three-step process.
The BSP has the capacity to 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. The card production is done at the BSP’s Security Plant Complex in Quezon City where banknotes are also printed and coins are minted.
“The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the lead agency of the national ID project, successfully achieved its 2021 target after 50 million Filipinos completed the second step of registration this year,” said the BSP on Wednesday, Dec. 29.
The BSP said it has committed to provide Filipinos with a nationally-recognized identification document and that it “will continue printing (PhilID) cards during the holiday season.”
“The sustained production of PhilID cards is aligned with the national government’s broader initiatives to promote financial inclusion and inclusive economic growth,” it said, citing Republic Act No. 11055 or the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Act which made the PhilID a valid proof of identity and must be accepted in all government and private sector transactions.
Earlier this year, the BSP said it aims to print 70 million PhilIDs in 2021. Its original target was 45 million. It based its target on a similar, previously-announced 70 million target that the government has set for itself for 2021 as PhilID registrations.
At the end of 2020, the BSP printed three million cards.
In January this year, the BSP’s printing of national IDs were in question after complaints were filed with the Ombudsman against central bank officials including BSP Governor Benjamin E. Diokno, relating to the procurement for the printing of cards.
The BSP pursued the national ID production as this would propel its financial inclusion initiatives to new levels of success.
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 Philsys Act.