The Philippine Statistics Authority has already printed 46 million national IDs for the 80.5 million Filipinos who registered to the Philippine Identification System.

Fred Sollesta, PSA PhilSys Registry Office OIC and Deputy National Statistician, said PhilPost has already distributed 39 million national IDs. About 1 million physical cards are set to be delivered in the National Capital Region.

"'Yung ID na pini-print natin sa [Bangko Sentral] ito 'yung medyo may delay tayo kasi nakapagprint tayo ng 46 million out of 80 million registrants," he said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview.

"'Yung intervention ng PSA dito, nag issue kami ng ePhil ID na another form of credential na pareho lang ang gamit sa ating physical card na iniimprenta sa BSP."

He admitted the Bangko Sentral's printers were unable to handle the large volume of physical cards that needed to be printed.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology earlier said President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. is losing patience over the slow rollout of national IDs.

• Marcos losing patience over slow national ID rollout: DICT

The National Economic Development Authority last month said the management and production of digital national IDs had been transferred to the DICT from the Philippine Statistics Authority.