PSA registers 305 K in national ID rollout

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Camarines Sur has registered some 305,681 individuals for the Step 2 of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) in 72 days after its gradual rollout since Feb. 9, 2021.

This represent 22 percent of the 1,322,551 individuals targeted for PhilSys registration in the province by the end of 2021. As of May 3, all 35 municipalities and two cities of the province rolled-out their own fully operational PhilSys Registration Centers for Step 2 with over 362 personnel operating 169 registration kits.

PhilSys Step 2 or registration proper involves the validation of supporting documents and capture of biometric data of the registrants, which includes the iris scan, fingerprint scan, and front-facing photographs. This is in addition to the basic demographic data gathered during the Step 1 phase of PhilSys.

Pre-registered applicants from Step 1, who were low-income household members interviewed for demographic data, were previously recorded at 402,387 individuals in 2020. From Jan. 18 this year, PSA added 312,138 individuals in Step 1 pre-registration.

The PSA in the province exceeded the 238,141 target set by its central Office by 31 percent. This brings the total Step 1 registrants to 714,525 individuals who will be prioritized for Step 2 registration.

According to PSA, it faced challenges for the province-wide implementation of PhilSys. The recent surge of COVID cases in the past months forced seven registration centers to suspend operations. The stoppages affected the daily output produced by all registration centers from 8000 to 6000 daily average registrants.

The local statistics office said it initiated various innovations such as longer operating hours at the Fixed Registration Center located at the ALDP Mall from 7:00AM to 11:00 PM.

This was implemented as a countermeasure for the decreasing outputs and to accommodate the working population. Moreover, in order to meet desired targets, it also initiated arrangements for institutional registration at Department of Education Naga, the 9th Infantry Division Philippine Army, and the Philippine National Police Camarines Sur office among others.