Newly-appointed acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said the government aims to have five million Filipinos enrolled into the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys ID) this year and possibly complete the registration of the entire population by 2022.

Chua said he and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Undersecretary Dennis Mapa have agreed to use the next two months to finish the remaining procurement and preparations for the PhilSys ID.

“So that June or July when ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) is relaxed or modified, we will be able to begin again the registration of the households,” he said in a presser.

Chua, also acting National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general, said they are looking for ways so that many of the registrations will be front-loaded this year as much as possible.

“One thing that we are thinking about is if we can target so that each household gets to be registered ibig sabihin (that means), the household head will be registered instead of everyone in the household so we still reach five million registration. But we are not merely covering five million people, we are covering five million households and that is one way to ensure that we can address some of the issues in the social amelioration,” he said.

Chua was optimistic that the 2022 completion target is “still feasible”.

He said accelerating the implementation of the national ID system is among the “marching orders” of Malacañang to him upon his appointment as acting secretary of NEDA.

He added that Congress passed the National ID Law which will allow the country to implement its social welfare programs more effectively and efficiently in the near future.

Apart from the national ID system, Chua said he will also prioritize the crafting of the national recovery plan amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and support the country’s “Build, Build, Build” program through NEDA’s work in the Investment Coordination Committee.

“We probably will be entering a new normal and we will have to determine which of the Build, Build, Build projects have the maximum impact. When we are allowed to continue when it is safe to go out and work, we will have to use that as one of the main drivers of the economy because that is where jobs are created, that is where the multiplier effects are higher so that will be an important part of our recovery,” he added. (PNA)