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MANILA - Mass registration for the national ID system has been moved from July to October this year in light of the public health emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Philippine Statistics Office official said Tuesday.

"'Yung mass registration natin will start October po. Kung hindi tayo nagkaroon ng COVID-19 then we should start the registration sa July," PSA Assistant Secretary Lourdines Dela Cruz said over radio DZMM.

(Our mass registration will start in October. If we did not have COVID-19, we should have been starting registration in July.)

• Entire Filipino population enrolled in national ID system by mid-2022: PSA

Moving the date is good, Dela Cruz said, as PSA has increased its target population from the initial 5 million to 10 million this year, prioritizing heads of households first.

"By 2022, we envision na majority of Filipinos ay mayroon nang ID," he said.

(By 2022, we envision that majority of Filipinos already have the national ID.)

President Rodrigo Duterte signed the national ID system into law in August 2018. The PSA said the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) will provide a "valid proof of identity" for all Filipinos and residents, making access to services simpler and faster by eliminating the need to provide other forms of identification.

He said PhilSys will give a unique, randomly selected number to each person. Databases of various government agencies will then cross-check the person's data to verify his or her identity.

The national ID will help speed up identity authentication of poor Filipinos who find it hard to register for some services, including opening bank accounts, said Dela Cruz.

Earlier, Senate Presidente Vicente Sotto III called for the urgent launch of the national ID system as this would help in the release of aid to needy Filipinos amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Sotto: Implement national ID system to streamline COVID-19 aid recipients, speed up release