Congress ignores national ID fiasco

[Lee]

Quote

 

THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) claimed in its press release dated June 5, 2023 (Reference 2023-193, https://psa.gov.ph/content/psa-philsys-pivotal-step-towards-inclusion-through-identity) that it had "registered 78.9 million Filipinos nationwide, with 65 million PhilIDs and ePhilIDS issued, including 31.4 million printed PhilIDs and 33.8 million ePhilIDs."

The 31.4 million printed PhilIDS are the personalized national ID cards physically printed on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cards as provided by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to the PSA. The plastic cards were supplied in turn by Allcard Inc. to BSP. Allcard was supposed to deliver 116 million pieces of cards by the end of 2022 at a staggering cost of P3.06 billion. It failed to deliver.

As a stopgap measure, and in order not to put the present administration in an embarrassing situation, the PSA decided to print on paper — not on PVC cards — what they call the ePhilIDs. These are not "electronic" in nature but printed on ordinary paper, which the recipient has to laminate by themselves.

What is the implication of these paper-printed ePhilIDs? For one, the PSA shouldered the cost of the paper on which the ePhilID would be printed, together with the corresponding manpower to get it done. A big chunk of the added cost is the mailing of the paper-printed ePhilID. (To save on the cost, PSA should have just sent by electronic mail the ePhilIDs instead of printing them on paper.)

Let us compute the cost of this extra job for the PSA. The standard rate for postage and mailing of parcels through the Philippine Postal Corp. is P30. Add to that the cost of paper, ink, envelope and manpower (approximately P7.) The total cost of producing and delivering one paper-printed ePhilID is P37. Multiply that unit cost by the total number of ePhilIDS (33.8 million per PSA) and you get a gargantuan amount of P1.2506 billion.

Who will bear the P1.2506 billion cost? The PSA. Where will that amount come from? Of course, from the Filipino taxpayers. Had Allcard delivered the PVC cards, then there would be no such additional burden that would be placed on the already weary shoulders of Filipinos.

Lobbying in Congress

Rep. Augustina Dominique Pancho filed House Resolution 593 way back on Nov. 28, 2022. The resolution seeks to "conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation on the delay in the full implementation of Republic Act (RA) 11055 or the 'PhilSys Act' (establishing a single national ID system) to guarantee transparency, preserve public interest, prevent undue waste of government funds and avoid possible anomalies or incidence of negligence, graft and corruption, and to ensure the welfare of our people." The resolution was referred by the Committee on Rules to the Committee on Population and Family Relations on Dec. 7, 2022. It has been relegated to the background since then.

Prior to this, Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy filed House Resolution 471, "urging the appropriate House committee to conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation regarding the inefficient, delayed and faulty rollout by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, National Economic and Development Authority and the Philippine Statistics Authority of the National ID System." The resolution has been sleeping in the Committee on Population and Family Relations since Nov. 8, 2022.

In the upper chamber, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel 3rd filed on May 2, 2023 Senate Resolution 585, "directing the Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations (blue ribbon) to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the delayed issuance of national identification cards." It has been pending with the blue ribbon committee since May 9, 2023.

All of these resolutions remain as resolutions, without being calendared and included in the agenda for committee discussions or plenary hearings. Our sources disclosed that there were lobbyists roaming Congress making sure that the national ID fiasco would not be investigated — lest the real culprits, still sitting in the Marcos administration, would be exposed.

DoTr next in line

ABS-CBN reported that "two out of the three firms bidding to supply driver's license cards passed the first stage of scrutiny by the Department of Transportation's (DoTr) bids and awards committee." (https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/05/25/23/2-firms-pass-first-stage-of-bidding-for-drivers-license-deal). One of these two firms is Allcard Inc. Would the Transportation department risk its driver's license project being subjected to delays and substandard cards as that of the Allcard-BSP-PSA triumvirate?

(The media network listed all the previous and current projects of the two firms that passed DoTr's first stage of qualifications. However, deliberately or not, it never mentioned that Allcard was the contractor of the failed national ID project.)

Tired of the usual government antics, the Stop Corruption Philippines Organization Inc., through its secretary general, Rhea Nicole Fulgencio, sent a dispatch to Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista urging the latter to "act accordingly and refrain from entrusting this latest procurement of 5.2 million pieces driver's license polycarbonate cards to Allcard Inc."

Would Bautista heed this call or go through the downtrodden path taken by the BSP and the PSA?

 

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/06/10/opinion/columns/congress-ignores-national-id-fiasco/1895370

[Old55]

Nothing to see here.... Move along... Move along......

[Mike J]

22 minutes ago, Old55 said:

Nothing to see here.... Move along... Move along......

In the military we called it a SNAFU.  Situation Normal All . . . . . 

[hk blues]

Like the SIM registration system, the national ID card idea is in theory good but as always here the issue is implementation.  There are all sorts of reasons why they simply don't do implementation well and most of them we've discussed to death. 

As Old55 nicely puts it...nothing to see here, move on!