(PNA photo by Gil Calinga)
BALANGA CITY, Bataan – Over 74 percent of the target population in this province have been registered under the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) as of June 30.
Richard Guevara, supervising statistical specialist of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) provincial office, said on Wednesday that of the 774,485 target, 74.29 percent or 575,333 have registered since 2020. About 199,152 remain unregistered.
Records showed that the Philippine Postal Corporation has received from PSA some 218,484 national IDs for Bataan and delivered 212,307 as of May 2022.
Nationwide, PSA reported that 10,548,906 cards have been delivered as of April 30, 2022, or 33.7 percent of their target this year.
“Nagsimulang mag-slowdown ang aming registration sa Bataan since January 2022 dahil noong unang taon ay sobrang bilis at sobrang daming interested na magparehistro. Ngayon ay nahihirapan kaming hanapin ang remaining 199,152 pero ginagawa naming lahat ang paraan (Our registration in Bataan started to slowdown since January 2020 because during the first year, there were too many people who are interested to register. Now, we have difficulty in looking for the remaining 199,152 but we are doing all means),” Guevara said in an interview.
Daisy Mae Buenaventura, PhilSys focal person, said persons being registered are five years old and above.
“Ang may limit pa lang muna ay ang four years old and below dahil naghihintay pa kami ng system kasi kailangan pa ng PSA ang mga guardian ng mga ito (Those with limit, for the meantime, are four years old and below because we are still waiting the system. The PSA needs the guardian of those children),” Buenaventura said.
“Kapag 16 years old na ang bata ay doon pa lamang magiging lifetime ang kanyang ID at ang below 15 years old ay for updating pa ito (If the child reached the age of 16 years, that is the only time that his/her ID will become lifetime. For those below 15 years old, it is still for updating)," she added.
Maria Rosario dela Rosa, registration officer at PSA in Bataan said several challenges in the national ID registration include the late distribution of physical IDs, lack of supporting documents, and mobile registration schedule. (PNA)
