Manila: A law providing Filipinos with a universal identification card will be given priority by lawmakers, Senator Panfilo Lacson assured as he said that all government agencies are solidly behind the measure.
“The National ID bill is likely to become a law before the prospective impeachment trial of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno,” Lacson said Tuesday while pointing out that Senate will have to fast track the identification card measure as the two chambers are expected to have it hands full tackling the complaint against the top magistrate.
“I will say with certainty that it will be enacted into law before the impeachment complaint is transmitted to the Senate, if it comes to that,” Lacson said.
After approving the Senate version of the national ID law, the two chambers will work on reconciling it with the version of the House and convene a bicameral conference committee after Congress resumes session on May 15.
Earlier, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said President Rodrigo Duterte would hopefully sign the National ID Law before Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018, however, this timeline apparently was set back and most likely the Philippine leader would sign the measure into law on or before he makes his State of the Nation address sometime in July this year.
Lacson said he “does not see any reason why the bicameral version of the measure would not be passed soon.”
The measure seeks to integrate and interconnect “countless and redundant” government-issued IDs with a National ID system.
In sponsoring the bill, Lacson said the system would allow the public to “easily” transact with government and private institutions, as well as deter criminality.
A salient feature of the Lacson-proposed Senate Bill No. 1738, the National ID measure, seeks to institute a single official identification, not just for all Philippine citizens, but foreign residents in the country as well.
Senate President Koko Pimentel said the National ID or PhilID measure also aims to record all data and information about foreigners residing in the Philippines
“Our main purpose in the Senate is for the country to have a national database of all residents,” he said.
Entry of foreign terrorists if a major concern in the country given the country’s notoriously porous borders.
As with the experience from the Marawi City crisis last year, dozens of terrorists from neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia and other neighbouring countries were able to gain entry to the Philippines undetected making their way to the battle zones in the Western Mindanao region.
Lacson, who was national police director general from 1999 to 2001, added the National ID is adjunct to the establishment of a National Reference System, a database of citizens that could help law enforcers deter criminality and terrorism.
There are at least 33 different functional identification cards issued by the various government agencies. Under the bill, a foundational ID system that will have the PhilSys number, PhilID and PhilSys Registry.
The PhilSys Number is a randomly generated identification number for each individual, to be incorporated in all identification systems of government agencies.
The PhilID is a non-transferable card with the PSN, full name, facial image, date of birth, address, and fingerprints of the bearer.
