The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has officially rolled out on Monday the first step in the registration process of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) project.

In a bid to provide “legal identity” to all Filipinos and resident aliens, the PSA has started collecting demographic data from targeted low-income Filipinos in 664 cities and municipalities in 32 provinces identified as “low-risk” areas for coronavirus outbreak.

According to the PSA, the project will be implemented in a three-step approach to protect the registration team and target registrants against the risks of the Covid-19 infection.

PSA Assistant Secretary Rosalinda Bautista earlier said the first step in the registration involves the collection of the registrant’s information including full name, gender, date, and place of birth, blood type, and address.

It will be followed by the setting up of an appointment for the biometrics capture that includes fingerprint, iris scan, and front-facing photograph, she said.

“In the step one registration, PSA will conduct house-to-house visits to collect demographic data of nine million individuals composed of at least five million low-income household heads, while the rest are adult household members,” she said.

Bautista said the registrants would physically visit the registration centers based on the given appointment schedule for the second phase of the registration process that will run from November 25 to December 30.

The appointment system in the second step will give time for the PSA to conduct regular disinfection measures to avoid the spread of the virus within registration centers.

The third step of the registration is the issuance of a physical ID card stored with 12-digit PhilSys number or personal serial number (PSN) and 16-digit PhilSys card number (PCN), Bautista added.

The PSN and PCN will be generated after the validation process to avoid duplication of registration entry, she added.

“The validated data of applicants will be transmitted to the PSP facility called Phil ID card production and personalization, then, the card delivery,” she said. “The Phil ID cards will be delivered to successful registrants via courier services.”

PhilSys registration team

The registration team who will go knocking door-to-door for the pre-registration process is composed of one supervisor and one to five enumerators translated as a 1:5 supervisor to enumerator ratio.

Bautista said around 5,000 supervisors and enumerators were hired and trained for step one registration.

Meanwhile, the registration team is composed of one supervisor, three encoders, one screener, and one assistant.

She said there is an ongoing hiring of 9,000 personnel to work for step two registration.

The PSA targets to register the majority of Filipinos by the end of 2022.

Signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act, aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens.

The national ID shall be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, enrollment in schools, and the opening of bank accounts.

It will also boost efficiency, especially in dealing with government services where people will only need to present one ID during transactions. (PNA)