The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Western Visayas is urging the support and cooperation of target pre-registrants for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Registration that commenced on Monday (Oct 12).

In a phone interview, PSA OIC Regional Director Marlene Alviar said they target to pre-register 1,963,321 low-income household heads and members from four provinces in Western Visayas.

The target included 222,250 in Antique, 278,408 in Capiz, 808,387 from Negros Occidental, and 654,276 from Iloilo.

“They were chosen from provinces, which more or less belong to the bottom 40 percent of the population in terms of income based on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey,” she said on Tuesday.

PSA has tapped 809 enumerators to conduct the house-to-house pre-registration to collect demographic information as part of the PhilSys Step 1 registration. The household head will also be given a schedule for their visit to registration centers for the capture of their biometric information.

The biometric information will include front face photograph, fingerprint, and iris scan. This will complete their registration for the PhilSys.

During the registration process, PSA targets to register 1,081,960 — only the household head will be registered first to minimize the number of people who will flock to identified registration centers, she said.

Meanwhile, Alviar said she is yet to get feedback from the field as regards the kickoff of the pre-registration. In Iloilo, the registration for the fourth and fifth districts already started.

“We call on for the support to our enumerators so they could collect the needed information. This is for you to fast-track the services that will be provided by the government,” she added.

President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act No.11055 or the Philippine Identification Act that aims to establish a single national identification system for all citizens and residents of the Philippines. (PNA)