MANILA (UPDATE) — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said that he is looking to have Filipinos use their national identification cards early next year.

Marcos gave the statement a day after his meeting with Socioeconomic Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, where the topic was discussed.

“Sa ating pagpupulong kasama si NEDA Director-General Arsenio Balisacan, tinalakay kung paano mapapabilis ang pag-imprenta ng higit 50 milyon National ID cards upang magamit na ng ating mga kababayan simula sa unang bahagi ng taong 2023,” he said in a social media post.

(In our meeting with NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan, we discussed who we can speed up the production of more than 50 million national ID cards so that our countrymen can use these in the first part of 2023.)

The National ID System is part of the government's plan for economic recovery, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said.

"Essential siya lalong lalo na sa banking system, sa pagtatayo ng maliliit na negosyo lalo na sa maliliit na negosyo," she said.

"Sa credit system, mahalaga din po yung national ID system," she added.

In 2018, then-President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippine System Identification Act (PhilSys Act) into law, mandating the government to create a single official identification card for all citizens and foreign residents to have a single national identification number for all their transactions with the government.

• Duterte signs National ID system into law

In 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is producing at least 70,000 national IDs a day, but has faced delays due to the deluge of registrants.

In February, about 55 million Filipinos have registered in the national ID system, but only 6 million cards have so far been released.

• About 55 million Filipinos now registered for national ID - PSA

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