Rodrigo Duterte Signs National Identification Card Law

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed a law requiring all Filipinos to get a national identification card. Prior to the law, the Philippines was one of a few countries in the world that had no national ID system.

Duterte said the Philippine Identification System Act “will promote good governance, enhance governmental transactions, and create a more conducive environment for trade and commerce to thrive.”

Past administrations have tried but failed to implement the system, due to concerns from some sectors about possible violations to privacy and data security.

According to the law, the information to be collected for the single national identification system is data that the government already has for various identification cards previously issued to Filipinos.

The information include gender, blood type, date of birth, place of birth, marital status and residential address.

“There is, therefore, no basis at all for the apprehensions about the Phil-ID [Philippine identification card], unless of course that fear is based on anything that borders on the illegal,” Duterte said.

“If at all, the Phil-ID will even aid in our drive against the social menaces of poverty, corruption and criminal issues, as well as terrorism and violent extremism,” he added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority will be conducting a pilot implementation of the law in the coming months, according to Lisa Grace Bersales, national statistician and civil registrar general.

“The pilot test aims to lay down the registration process prior to the full five-year implementation starting 2019,” she added in a statement.