The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is now in talks with their Information Technology (IT) consultants to increase the capacity of the National ID site to allow more Filipinos to register in the PhilSys.
Despite the glitch encountered by the PhilSys web site last Friday, National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa explained they were able to complete the registration of some 25,000 individuals.
Mapa said the government aims to register some 50 million to 70 million Filipinos in the National ID this year. With this, the government aims to provide bank accounts to 100 percent of the population by year-end.
“We are working with international experts to increase our capacity,” Mapa said in a briefing on Wednesday. “The IT team is fixing the problem and we will make an announcement when the public can register again online.”
Mapa said since October 2020, the PSA 33.3 million Filipinos have already registered under Step 1 of the National ID. Of this number, 6.4 million have been registered under Step 2.
He said these numbers, particularly for Step 2, could be higher now considering that the PSA is able to register around 200,000 Filipinos per day under Step 2.
Step 1 involved the collection of demographic data and setting of the appointment schedule for Step 2. Step 2 covers the provision of biometric information such as fingerprints and iris scans through registration centers.
Step 2 also allowed unbanked registrants to create bank accounts with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank). Mapa said around 2.6 million registrants were already able to create their own bank accounts with the state-run bank.
“Every time they finish Step 2, National ID registrants without a bank account can just visit the co-located LandBank kiosk and open an account. We want all households to have at least one member with a bank account by the end of the year to ensure 100 percent financial inclusion by family,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said in a news statement.
The last step involves the provision of PhilSys Number and printing of cards. The PSA and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are discussing the possibility of printing more than 160,000 cards per day starting this month.
Chua also emphasized that the National ID program will help accelerate social protection programs and the vaccination drive amid the pandemic.
“Since poor families will have access to bank accounts, subsidies like the Social Amelioration Program [SAP] can be given directly to beneficiaries without gathering in distribution centers,” he explained.
“The National ID can also be used to queue and register the adults belonging to Priority Group C or the general population once it starts later this year,” Chua added.
Last Friday, the registration web site encountered some technical issues as the number of users exceeded the capacity on the first day.
Some 46,000 Filipinos or three times the normal capacity wanted to register at the same time during the first minute. However, the web site is designed to accommodate only 16,000 simultaneous users per minute, peaking at 35,000.
Chua also apologized to the President and to the Filipino people for the glitch and affirmed that the National Economic and Development Authority and PSA are working with local and international experts to increase the web site’s capacity and to get the platform up and running as soon as possible.
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