Philippine National ID set for dry run in December 2018

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is targeting to enroll some one million individuals for the national identification system’s dry run which kicks off in December.

National Statistician Lisa Bersales on Monday said the PSA will partner with the Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) for the “proof of concept” involving one million beneficiaries of the unconditional cash transfer program.

“This proof of concept is end to end, which is: we will test registration, validation, all the process in between, up to issuance of the Phil ID, the national ID card,” she said at a press briefing in Malacañang.

“After the proof of concept is tested for about six months, we will learn from what happened and make any adjustments on the technical specifications and other processes for PhilSys. Then, next year, we will do the procurement of the full PhilSys system learning from the proof of concept.”

PhilSys is the Philippine Identification System.

Bersales said the statistics office will still buy the software and equipment for proof of concept. It will be conducted “in parallel” with the privacy impact assessment.

“Once we have already started the proof of concept, we shall also do vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to further ensure that the system we are using is really ensuring privacy of our citizens secure,” Bersales noted.

“So that vulnerability assessment and penetrations testing will be done next year,” she added.

In partnership with the Presidential Communications Operations Office and Department of Foreign Affairs, the PSA will conduct an “extensive” information campaign from November to December.

The government aims to cover five million individuals from September to December 2019 and 25 million people each year from 2020 to 2023. Aside from Filipinos, resident foreigners will also have to register under the PhilSys.

“This is a long-term work. But the work that we will do—this year with proof of concept and next year with the start of the full implementation—will help us learn more and more on how to really do our PhilSys as it should be done for our citizens,” Bersales said.

Signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on August 6, Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys Act) seeks to harmonize, integrate, and interconnect the countless and redundant government IDs by establishing a single national identification system.

The Phil-ID will contain the PhilSys number and the cardholder’s full name as well as facial image, sex, date of birth, blood type, and address. Biometric information such as a full set of fingerprints and iris scan are also in the card.

Optional information includes marital status, mobile phone number, and email address.

This article originally appeared on: GMANews