Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy revealed that the long delay—about “four years or five years”—in the issuance of the physical national ID has made the public impatient, not the least President Marcos himself.

President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo courtesy of Malacañang)

Now, they are working on a digital version of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) cards and hopes to start deploying those by December 2023.

“So, a lot of delays have already happened and there are many of our countrymen who have been complaining that up to this date, they have not yet received their national ID. And so, the President has expressed his impatience because a lot of things needed to be done and it’s all dependent on the deployment of a national ID,” he lamented during a Palace press briefing on Wednesday, Sept. 13.

“So DICT prepared a study and a plan to deploy a national digital ID which is an identity system that can be loaded on your respective mobile phones,” the official stated.

However, he assured that they would also find ways how this would work for those without smartphones and Internet access.

The DICT is looking at starting the deployment of the digital national IDs by December this year, which Uy said would be a good Christmas gift for Filipinos who have been waiting for years to get their IDs.

Right now, the DICT is fixing the system that would link its own to that of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the agency responsible for the collection of data and capturing of biometrics for the PhilSys ID system.

“So, we have four months in order to do this. The pressure is on us but as the President said we cannot delay this anymore and medyo (slightly) we are kumbaga travelling at warp speed in all our digital deployment,” he said.

The official explained that the digital version of the national ID would be a “parallel” effort by the DICT while the PSA “is taking their time” with the physical ID.

He, however, refused to speculate when PSA could deploy the physical IDs given that there is an existing budget for it.

Instead, the official emphasized the importance of a digital ID since most countries have been using it.

“Because this has more use cases and it allows for better online transactions dahil karamihan po natin na mga (most of our) netizens are already doing online transactions,” he stated, adding that the pandemic further stressed the need to shift from physical transactions to online or digital transactions.

The ID can also be used for the distribution of social amelioration packages by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Asked if there would be an investigation into why there was a long delay in the issuance of physical national IDs, Uy kept mum and deferred to the President.

“I think that will have to be…we’ll have to ask the President and we’ll have to ask the agency head how they’re going to resolve those issues,” he said.

“Whether heads will roll or ano – I think that’s another departments concern and we’ll have to probably ask them what will be the actions that’s going to be taken,” the official added.