Malacañang has announced that President Rodrigo Duterte will be signing into law the proposed national identification system bill that seeks to consolidate government IDs.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte will be signing the proposition once the final version has been submitted to his office.
The bill is one of the priorities of the Duterte administration.
“This landmark bill is part of the legislative priority agenda of the Duterte administration to improve the delivery of government services; thus, once ratified, the President will sign this into law,” Roque said.
On May 23, the bicameral conference committee has approved the measure seeking to establish the Philippine Identification System or PhilSys.
Details about the bicam version of the bill were not revealed but Senator Panfilo Lacson said the bicam version mostly followed the Senate-approved version.
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.
There were previous attempts under past administrations to have a national ID system, which all failed to get an approval for privacy reasons.
