A bicameral conference committee has approved on Tuesday night, May 23, a bill seeking to establish the Philippine Identification System or PhilSys.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said the bicam committee decided to follow most provisions in the Senate-approved version of the bill.
“Not much difference. In fact substantially, the HOR (House of Representatives) adopted the Senate version,” Lacson said in a text message to GMA News Online Wednesday.
Lacson hopes the Upper and Lower Chamber can ratify the bicam-approved version before Monday next week so that President Rodrigo Duterte can sign the bill into law.
The bill aims to consolidate around 33 government IDs through the establishment of a single national ID.
The PhilSys will provide a card with an electronic chip containing personal information of a citizen including date of birth, place of birth, permanent address, marital status, blood type, parents’ full name, biometrics information, height, weight in kilograms, distinguishing features, and tax identification number.
The card will also contain a voter’s identification number and Philippine passport number.
“The bill will allow every Filipino and resident alien of the country to be identified with the use of a PhilSys Number or PSN, a randomly generated, unique and permanent identification number which shall be the standard number assigned to each individual to be incorporated in all identification systems of government agencies,” Lacson earlier said.
There were previous attempts under past administrations to have a national ID system, which all failed to get an approval for privacy reasons.
