Around 1 million indigents from Western Visayas are expected to be enlisted under the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) this year.

Nelida Amolar, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) chief statistical specialist and officer in charge Regional Director for the Regional Statistical Services Office in Western Visayas, said in an interview on Monday they will be bringing the registration in schools with bigger population and institutions where there are convergence of people like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Amolar said the DSWD has an advisory for household members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program to bring members of their family to the venue of the colocation when they claim their payout or distribution of assistance because the PhilSys registration will be there.

“We target 50 percent of the 2 million. We will be registering more or less 1 million. We still have a backlog when it comes to our target,” she said.

She added they will start with their colocation on Sept. 15 in all provinces and highly urbanized cities of Western Visayas if the DSWD can provide them with their payout schedule.

Amolar said since they usually live in far-flung areas, the PSA registration teams, including their mobile team, found difficulty reaching them.

As of the end of July this year, the PSA has registered 79.12 percent of the 7,954,723 population.

In terms of ID issuance, 2,251,613 have received the electronic copy of their PhilSys ID, while 3,769,916 have polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ID cards.

She said there is still a backlog of 1 million who have yet to receive their ID.

They can also visit the PSA office, bring their transaction slips to get an electronic copy of their national ID. (PNA)