More than 1 million intervened in the first 8 days of the national identification registry: NEDA

MANILA – The massive registration for the national ID system reached more than 1 million heads of low-income households in the first 8 days after it began, Acting Secretary for Socio-Economic Planning Karl Kendrick Chua said Thursday.

The Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) began collecting data earlier this month.

As of October 20, the registry surpassed its target of 300,000, with only 82 percent of pollsters deployed, according to data released by Chua in a briefing.

“Step 1 of the national ID registry surpassed 1 million on our eighth day (October 20),” Chua said.

Second. Karl Chua: Step 1 of the National Identification Record passed 1 million on our 8th day (October 20). pic.twitter.com/E2YyvBJsam

– Warren de Guzman (@wddeguzman) October 22, 2020

The average total transaction time per record is just 10.7 minutes, with 5.4 minutes per registrant, Chua said.

Mass registration will be carried out in phases to minimize exposure to COVID-19, the Philippine Statistics Authority previously said.

Step 1 involves going to the homes of selected pre-registrants to obtain their information and schedule a date for them to go to the registration center.

Step 2 is when pre-registrants head to registration centers on November 25 for their biometric capture, the agency said.

The initial 32 provinces selected for registration were selected based on the low incidence of COVID-19 in each province. The goal is to register at least 5-10 million this year, PSA undersecretary Rosalinda Bautista previously said.

Chua had said that national identification would give unbanked members of the population access to financial services and curb corruption in the delivery of social assistance in times of crisis.