What you need to know as national ID pilots on Oct. 12

^{Mandated under Republic Act 11055 enacted in 2018, the national ID program aims to replace over 46 different government IDs such as that from pension funds and provide convenience to the transacting public. Over time, the Department of Information and Communications Technology foresees the ID as a tool to open bank accounts and to digitally transact as a cashless payment system.}

MANILA, Philippines — It’s all systems go for the Philippine national ID system on Monday when the flagship program begins knocking on household doors in a bid to get 9 million Filipinos registered by yearend.

The target only represents less than a tenth of the 108 million Filipinos the system aims to enroll by end-2022. On Friday, officials from the Philippine Statistics Authority led the launching of the Philippine Identification System that targets to provide a single and all-purpose ID for government and business transactions.

Mandated under Republic Act 11055 enacted in 2018, the national ID program aims to replace over 46 different government IDs such as that from pension funds and provide convenience to the transacting public. Over time, the Department of Information and Communications Technology foresees the ID as a tool to open bank accounts and to digitally transact as a cashless payment system.

For the government, the ID, and the information it holds, can cut bureaucratic red tape encountered on programs like cash transfers where the goal is to make it easier to track and distribute aid to beneficiaries.

For this year, the government is targeting to register “9 million individuals composed of at least 5 million low-income household heads and the rest of adult members,” Assistant Secretary Rosalinda Bautista of PSA said.

The process will involve 2 stages of preregistration and registration proper, which will both follow health protocols like social distancing currently in practice to prevent the spread of coronavirus. For this year, the first stage will be held from October 12 to December 30, while the second stage will run from November 12 to December 30.

Detailed processes involved in the two stages are in the infographics below: