ROCKY IGNACIO/PTV4: Good morning, Malacañang Press Corps at sa ating mga bisita. We have PCOO Director Juniño Padilla to introduce our guests today.
DIR. PADILLA: Thank you, Usec. Rocky. With us today are the members of the PhilSys Policy and Coordinating Council who will brief us on the development of the Philippine Identification System.
We have this morning, Usec. Lisa Grace Bersales of PSA; Usec. Lilia Guillermo of DBM; Deputy Commissioner Leandro Angelo Aguirre of NPC; Mr. Ricarte B. Abejuela III of DFA; and Director Teresa Garcia of DICT; also with us today from BSP Joy Sopicynthia; from GSIS Beverly Esguerra; SSS VP Joel Layson and PhilHealth SVP Jovita Aragon. Pilipinas, friends, the members of PPCC.
ROCKY/PTV4: Good morning, Ma’am. Can we have Ma’am Bersales, please?
USEC. BERSALES: Good morning everyone. I would like to thank PCOO for giving us this opportunity to provide everyone updates on the Philippine Identification System. As mentioned earlier, we are here us a members of the PSPCC, this is a national ID council or the PhilSys Council if I may just shorten it. So we shall provide you today updates on what’s going on with the Philippine Identification System.
In the next slide I have presentation, we would like to report to everyone that we were able to craft and finalize the implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Identification System and this was approved by the Council on October 5 and this Council is chaired by the Secretary Socio-Economic Planning Ernesto M. Pernia and co-chaired by PSA, myself. And we were able to publish the IRR the following day October 6 in Daily Tribune.
The publication of the IRR for PhilSys was really the start for PSA and council to already do the implementation of the PhilSys. We would like to report that – in a next slide – we are going to do a proof of concept this year before the year ends. This is to test the system and the processes that we have already crafted for the Philippine Identification System. This proof of concept, we say is end to end which is we will test, registration, validation, all the process in between up to issuance of the Phil ID, the national ID card. And this is PSA to partner with PhilPost. Why PhilPost of all the registration centers for the PhilSys? We find that because PhilPost has actually been doing registration for the members of the Social Security System for the Unified Multi-Purpose Identification System, we would like to partner with the PhilPost. They already have about 260 registration centers for UMID which we can use for PhilSys and thus the infrastructure is there, the experience is there for the proof of concept for PhilSys.
And after we learned from the proof of concept, we will then go to the procurement of the whole system. I would like to say that for this proof of concept, PSA will still do the procurement of the system – software and hardware for the proof of concept. And I would like to announce that we, PSA shall already call for a bid to do the PhilSys system for the proof of concept next week. So next week, we are going to already invite bids for the proof of concept. After the proof of concept is tested for about 6 months, we will learn from what happened and adjust any—or make any adjustments on the technical specifications and other processes for PhilSys, then next year we will do the procurement of the full PhilSys system learning from the proof of concept. So I will show you the timelines later.
As I’ve said earlier, the proof of concept will be end to end, from registration to providing the Phil ID.
For the proof of concept, we shall be enrolling 1 million unconditional cash transfer beneficiaries and so we will also partner with the DSWD to identify this 1 million. In the last briefing that I was here – which I participated before here in Malacañang – I mentioned 3 Regions and we called it pilot before. So we’re changing it, not pilot but ‘proof of concept.’ We will not limit the registration of 1 million unconditional cash transfer beneficiaries for the proof of concept to just 3 regions which I mentioned before, CAR, Calabarzon and NCR. We shall be expanding the coverage of proof of concept to other regions.
In the next slide, we would like to report to everyone that the partners and other stakeholders of PSA – which is the implementing agency – for what we are going to start this year are of course as I’ve already PhilPost for the agency to agency proof of concept; the Department of Foreign Affairs for the registration of Overseas Filipinos, dual citizens and immigrants. So DFA will be the partner of PSA for this other citizens of the Philippines who may not be in the country. Of course, our very supportive partners in the Council, the GSIS, SSS will be part of our work; PhilHealth of course and the others would be the local civil registry offices, PAGIBIG, Comelec for registration.
The Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration will be our partners for the foreign residents in the Philippines, the resident aliens, so we need DOJ-NBI as partners for them. And of course, I would like to emphasize that it is very important to clarify to one and all what this PhilSys is all about. And we are very thankful to PCOO for saying yes to be the partner of PSA for the communications strategy and actually today is like the beginning of this partnership for dissemination of what PhilSys is all about.
In the next slide, we have major timelines which we would like to report to everyone. PSA shall hire IT consultants by next month to further help us with our review of the IT specifications. Of course I would like to emphasize that DICT and NPC [National Privacy Commission] have been major partners in the crafting of the system that we will procure for the proof of concept, always making sure that we have privacy by design and that we have the latest technology that we shall be using for proof of concept and eventually for the PhilSys itself.
Furthermore, we will do in extensive information awareness campaign for PhilSys from November to December, this is with PCOO and DFA and we will conduct – as I’ve said earlier – the proof of concept which we actually will launch before the year ends in December; but we’ll be fast-tracked starting January. The start of the PhilSys procurement, the full system could be as early as February but I think we expect it to be April because we want to learn first from the proof of concept.
The timelines that I’m going to show you are of course indicative timelines. We have always been committing to ourselves to listen to everyone, get everyone’s advice, be open to everyone who will say, ‘PSA we should be doing this, why don’t you try this?’ So we have indicative timelines for ourselves but we shall be very flexible getting comments from everyone. I will just—
I think I’ve mentioned the main timelines already so I’ll go the next slide which is now the five year plan that we have decided for now for PhilSys. So as I’ve said already, before the year ends we shall hire technical consultants to help us more on our review of the specification. We shall do actually, as I’ve said also, the extensive information campaign. I would like to also emphasize that we have committed to make sure that the system is privacy by design. So we have actually started bidding for the privacy impact assessment which shall be done as we do the proof concept. So PSA has already—is already started to procure privacy impact assessment.
Once we have already start the proof of concept, we shall also do vulnerability assessment and penetration testing to further ensure that the system we are using is really ensuring privacy of our citizens secure. So that vulnerability assessment and penetrations testing will be done next year. But as I’ve said the privacy impact assessment will be in parallel with the proof of concept. We shall then as I’ve said already enroll one million households under the proof of concept. We will procure the full system after we’ve learned from the proof of concept and full scale registrations shall start next year in September targeting five million registrants after the one million registered under proof of concept.
In 2020, we then start registration of Overseas Filipino Workers as well as immigrants and dual citizens in coordination with DFA. So we shall also do this pilot already because we’ve done proof of concept by that time with the assistance of consular offices, foreign post of DFA. And of course in 2020, we will already start our target of 25 million per year registration to PhilSys.
In 2021 we continue the full scale registration – 25 million per year; 2022 – 25 million per year; and we hope that 2023 will just to tighten all citizens to be registered including our residents aliens.
So this is a long term work. But the work that we will do this year with proof of concept and next year with the start of the full implementation will help us learn more and more on how to really do our PhilSys as it should be done for our citizens.
In the next slide, I would just like to show that PSA also has done its work on having on having our logo for the Philippine Identification System. So we did this competitive, so we actually announced that we are doing competition for the logo and I believe this is the launch of the logo already. So we have here in the slide, the Philippine Identification System. What are the features of this logo? You have the finger print scan which represents the biometric system; you have the globe there which is engraved, we will enhance it further, there is an arrow that says that this will become better and better.
And we have the three colors of the Philippines: yellow, red and blue to say that this is Philippines. And I don’t know if you see the yellow part, that yellow part is baybayin and that baybayin means ‘ako.’ So the yellow is baybayin for ako – ‘Ako ito, ako ay Pilipino.’ So this is the logo for the PhilSys.
With this, I would like to thank everyone and the panel here with me will be very happy to answer questions. Thank you very much, Usec. Rocky.
ALVIN BALTAZAR/RADYO PILIPINAS: Good morning, Ma’am. Ma’am, kailan natin inaasahan talaga iyong lahat ay magkakaroon ng ID, though ang pagkakasabi natin long term talagang work ito ‘no. Pero kailan natin inaasahan na talagang ang bawat Pilipino mayroon ng ID at magagamit na sa iba’t-ibang transakyon?
USEC. BERSALES: Salamat po. Sa 2023, iyon po iyong ating target na by 2023 lahat po tayo na Pilipino at saka resident aliens ay meron na pong Phil ID. Pero every year po may mga Pilipino na mabibigyan na po. So, ang target po natin, sa 2019 ay iyong 1 million na UCT at saka additional na mga 5 to 6 million na mga Pilipino. Pagkatapos po niyan 25 million per year. At sinasabi po namin na pipila po tayo. So, there will be a very long queue, pero ang uunahin po natin iyong mga kababayan natin na talagang walang kahit anong government issued ID.
At saka iyong pagpipili po ng pila ay gagawin po ng PSA sa advise po ng ating Council, iyong ating Philippine Identification System Policy and Coordination Council.
ALVIN BALTAZAR/RADYO PILIPINAS: Ma’am, follow up na lang po. Doon sa mga unang batch na mabibigyan ng national ID, pupuwede na ba nilang magamit ito? Halimbawa, iyong sa 2021, 25 million, magagamit na po nila ito?
USEC. BERSALES: Opo. Kapag nakuha na po ninyo iyong Phil ID, iyon na po iyong one ID na sinasabi natin na puwede nating gamitin na pang-introduce sa sarili natin sa mga ahensiya ng gobyerno, para masabi na ako ito.
IAN CRUZ/GMA7: Hi, Ma’am. ‘Pag po by 2023 na-isyuhan na po ang lahat ng Pilipino, ibig sabihin mawawala na po ba iyong ID ng ibang mga agency, like SSS, GSIS, parang ganoon na po ba ang magiging system?
USEC. BERSALES: Iyon po ang vision natin na hindi na natin kailangang gamitin iyong iba pang mga ID para ipakilala ang ating sarili. Ang pinaka-purpose po ng Phil ID ay pang-introduce, pang-sabi na ako ito at ako talaga ito. So, it will answer who are you and are you really say you are. So, ang pinaka-reason niya is to establish identity.
Ngayon po, iyon ating pong iba-ibang ahensiya, may sari-sarili silang panggamit ng ating Phil ID. So, as we use the Phil ID, I believe that our agencies will more and more advise our citizens as to—is there a need for the other cards. But our vision is we won’t need those other cards. You just go to SSS, GSIS, Philhealth, Comelec to introduce yourselves using just that Phil ID.
Of course, I would like to emphasize that these different agencies will have their own separate data bases with all the information they have about us. Ang purpose lang ng Phil ID ay maibigay iyong PSN at kung kailangang i-validate iyong biometrics, meron po tayong authentication process. At ang vision po namin, ang kailangan pa ring meron tayo ay iyong passport – pambiyahe abroad; at saka iyong mga ID na may license. Iyong mga ID na pinapakita na ako ay nakapasa sa license, like the driver license and the PRC.
IAN CRUZ/GMA7: Ma’am, ang marami pong nagiging concern iyong siyempre sa privacy, nabanggit n’yo nga ano. Papano natin mai-ensure at paano natin masasabi na itong ID na ito, kapag nawala ay hindi basta-basta masa-swipe kung saan-saan? Kasi marami na pong magaling ngayon sa mga ganitong klase ng mga krimen.
USEC. BERSALES: Although ang sasagot dito DICT at saka NPC. Meron akong alam na sagot, pero maganda na rin marinig natin sila. Puwede ko bang ma-request si ano muna—privacy muna, si Atty. Dino, Deputy Commissioner of NPC Dino and then si Miss Tess of DICT.
DEPCOM AGUIRRE: Hello, good morning. For the privacy part, ang ginagawa po ng Privacy Commission together with the PSA and the other members ng PSPCC, so we have been coordinating with them. Iyong nabanggit po kanina ni Usec. Lisa, magkakaroon nga po ng privacy impact assessment na gagawin doon sa proof of concept at itong privacy impact assessment na gagawin na ito, ito iyong magpi-feed doon sa finalizations ng technical specs. So iyong concern po na nabanggit ninyo naiintindihan po namin iyon. Pero habang ginagawa itong impact assessment na ito relating to privacy, mas mai-streamline natin iyong proseso na iyan at maayos natin iyong mga technical na kailangan para mapigilan po iyang mga ganiyang or ma-assuage natin iyong mga ganiyang concerns ng mga Pilipino. Pero for the technical specification specifically sa DICT po iyon papasok.
DIR. GARCIA: Magandang umaga sa lahat. Iyong concern po natin regarding the security. Yung sinabi po kanina ni Usec. Liza that—ang gagawin po kasi natin, iyong sinasabi po nating security by design, in which in all of the steps or in all of the components of the PhilSys project, sisiguraduhin na natin na nandoon iyong security.
Hindi siya separate component but what we are saying it’s going to be imbedded in all of the system, infrastructure and that of the applications system that would be in the project. Iyon po. So kaya po we are coordinating with the PSA in making sure that the technical design imbedded po iyong security and together po iyong sa data privacy na sinasabi po ni DepCom.
IAN CRUZ/GMA7: Ma’am, sa terrorism and sa criminality, malaki ba ang magiging impact nitong national ID system? Kasi ito po iyong ginagamit ng karamihan sa mga ibang bansa ano. Kapag wala kang national ID, siyempre nandoon ka sa ibang klase ng lipunan.
USEC. BERNALES: Salamat sa napakahirap na tanong. Ayaw akong tulungan ng mga kasama ko dito. Ang sasabihin ko lang po, ibabalik ko iyong pinaka-use ng PhilSys. Ang pinaka-use ng PhilSys, very simple: It is the card that you will use to introduce yourself. And for the agency that you are showing your ID to: to be able to authenticate if you are really who you say you are through some authentication process where some biometrics will be recorded.
Now, as to uses, marami po siyang use including iyong tinatanong ninyo. Sa palagay ko po, iyong mga uses, malalaman natin kung paano gamitin iyong Phil ID as we use it. So, I believe the answer to that, yes there’s possibility for that particular use of the PhilSys. But, we will learn as we go along on how it can be used for such, but still you know, fulfill the promise that we gave to our citizens that this is not for profiling, this is to assure security and confidentiality for information that we give to PhilSys.
DEPCOM. AGUIRRE: So iyong nabanggit nga po ni Usec. Lisa, so we will find out kung papano siya magagamit as we use it, pero pagdating po sa improper use nung PhilSys nakasulat naman po sa batas iyong disclosure nung information sa loob ng PhilSys will only happen upon two conditions. The first, kung pumayag iyong data subject mismo na i-disclose iyon after sabihin sa kaniya kung ano iyong purpose nung pag-disclose; at pangalawa, kapag may order po galing sa competent court or competent authority na nag-uutos nung pag-disclose na iyon. At even if mangyari po iyon, kailangan i-notify iyong data subject – if I am not mistaken – within 72 hours after that initial order by the competent authority.
So iyong proper use po, malalaman natin habang ginagamit natin iyan, pero iyong protections against improper use, nakasulat na po sa batas mismo at napalakas pa iyon sa IRR.
IAN CRUZ/GMA7: Ma’am, last na. May design na ba iyong ID?
USEC. BERSALES: Mayroon na po. Actually, if I may say this, iyong design ng ating PhilSys matagal na pong pinag-uusapan ng technical working group on national ID even before the President signed it by law.
So, I would like to assure those who thought or who are thinking that is a rushed design. If I mention even, this design that we are going to release for our bid has been discussed thoroughly by our technical working group on national ID – our IT experts of the agencies that are being represented in the Council, so that’s an assurance. And it has been done – privacy the design – and to end and—but we want to make sure that we did it really well. That is why we are going to do the proof of concept and then we are going to do privacy impact assessment and we are going to do vulnerability assessment and penetration testing. Parang triple… sa isip ko, triple – ano ang tawag mo doon – basta iyong gusto mong… you are going to cover all bases. So, even if we did this for so many workshops already, we are still are listening to those who say, ‘be careful, be careful, be careful.’ So we are doing all of these, you know, safeguards that we are indeed designing our PhilSys really appropriately.
Usec. Rocky, I would like to also ask Usec. Lilia to add.
USEC. GUILLERMO: I just would like to add that para malaman ninyo na matagal nang pinaplano ito, is in 2018 nabigyan na po ng budget ang National ID. So all preparations inumpisahan even before the law came out, so talagang pinag-isipan ito. And iyong UMID—we’re not starting from scratch ‘no. There was UMID by GSIS and SSS. And then, there is the clamor from Congress na iyong ating mga indigents ay unahin na magkaroon ng ID so that triggered, that really triggered na bigyan na ng budget iyan kasi iyong ating mga indigents ay wala silang mga ID na maipakita sa bangko… iyong mga unbanked ‘no, gusto na sana nating ilagay sila sa financial ano natin para malaman na hindi sila indigents all throughout their life ‘no. Tutulungan natin kaya iyon ang priority ngayon ng PhilSys ID.
JULIE AURELIO/PDI: Medyo marami po. Una po, so you said na we will begin the enrolment of UCT beneficiaries by next year. I may have missed it in the timeline, but by when do we expect the first roll out of the national ID? By what month next year po kaya?
USEC. BERSALES: Although we call it proof of concept, the one million registration of unconditional cash transfers will be end to end. So actually, they are the first registrants into the Philippine Identification System na one million unconditional cash transfers.
Then, in 2019, we will start for all other citizens before the year end. So by September maybe… September, we start September for the first six million after the one million UCT.
JULIE AURELIO/PDI: Pero iyong one million may ID na rin silang makukuha.
USEC. BERSALES: Yes, ma’am.
JULIE AURELIO/PDI: And then another question. For example, may circumstance in which may isang citizen who can’t get a national ID or hindi pa nakakuha, paano ang magiging proseso, like for example sa banks or sa government agencies, can he or she still use iyong mga, say, other IDS like UMID, driver’s license? Or will the government agency or the financial institutions insist on seeing the national ID muna?
USEC. BERSALES: Our promise is that no citizen may be deprived of services of government just because he or she doesn’t have the Phil ID. So yes, citizens will continue to transact using their other ID cards.
The problem is, if the citizen doesn’t have the Phil ID, if they want to open a bank account, they still need to have those two government issued IDs.
JULIE AURELIO/PDI: But this will be treated as secondary IDs na, correct?
USEC. BERSALES: I don’t want to call them secondary IDs. They are still IDs for you to use if you still don’t have the Phil ID. So if you don’t have Phil ID, you still can transact with government – status quo, using the usual cards.
JULIE AURELIO/PDI: Okay. I’d just like to follow up on the line of questioning kanina, regarding terrorism and criminality. Ibabalik ko lang iyong question na like what if, for example, may criminal personality na hindi makakuha ng national ID. Tapos halimbawa, hinuli siya ng pulis, in-apprehend siya, will the fact na wala siyang national ID will be a cause for, say, to question him or arrest him under the law, ganoon? Kumbaga, magiging offense ba na wala kang national ID?
USEC. BERSALES: No, there’s no—you know, in the law, walang nakasabi na just because wala kang national ID ay may penalty. So wala actually na penalty kung hindi ka magpa-register. But, we strongly believe that everyone will want to have a Phil ID because this will be ease of transaction, ease of service.
Now, in the law—okay, when you register in national ID, we’re not going to ask you to show NBI clearance. So even if you have a record with the police or elsewhere, you can enroll in PhilSys because the only seed document you need is your birth certificate in the security paper of PSA and then your biometrics to be captured. I would like to say that in the IRR, we have included there other documents that can serve in lieu of the security paper birth certificate for our citizens who don’t have birth certificates, or lost them, or those who have errors in their birth certificate.
So we accept other government issued IDs and we also in the IRR have instituted the introducer mode in case there is really no birth certificate nor government issued ID for the citizen.
The PSA website has the law as published and the IRR as published. Please just download from the website if you don’t have a copy.
JULIE AURELIO/PDI: Ma’am, last na lang. ‘Di ba, given the technological landscape is changing almost every day, and you said that of course you will have security measures in place to ensure that the people’s data is kept private. In line with that, will the national ID have, say, like a certain validity period for you to, say, change the security measures applied to the system and to the ID in order to prevent na, kumbaga, maa-outdate at malaos at ma-hack kayo.
USEC. BERSALES: I’ll give initial answer, then and I will ask my colleagues here to help me. As I’ve said earlier, we’re going to do vulnerability assess and penetration testing. We’ll do this quarterly. And the privacy impact assessment is to be done every year. So through these evaluation measures, we will know if there is a need to do some changes to the ID specification. So that’s my initial answer. May I request my colleagues here to also give their answers. Usec. Lil, you want to say more?
USEC. GUILLERMO: Just like our credit cards or the… since when they told us to change your credit cards with EMV chips, maybe in the long run, as mentioned by Usec. Lisa, if we find out that in the assessment that we do its lacking security because of technological advancements, then we will have to do so.
DIR. TERESA GARCIA: Normally, in technical design, you have to review that regularly, so especially if there would be advancement in technology; especially also in terms of the application systems. So the review of the project would have to be done on a regular basis. And even data cleansing would have to be done on a regular basis as well, and this would have to be part of the terms of reference on the technical design that would have to be included in the (unclear).
So I think, probably, DepCom might want to add something in terms of the privacy.
DEPCOM AGUIRRE: Napag-usapan na po iyong sa security kanina, pero iyong nabanggit po ni Usec. Lisa regarding the regular conduct of the privacy impact assessment, this will also help ensure the security and safety of that system. Because when you conduct the privacy impact assessment, you take a look at all the processes and how it impacts the different systems that it touches.
So makikita po natin during the regular contact of that kung nagbabago ba iyong procedure as originally designed and how it is being implemented on the ground. So makikita po natin ano iyong mga potential gaps that emerge so that we can come up with remediation measures whether it’s a procedural, remediation measure, a policy remediation measure or a technical remediation measure that needs to be done to ensure the security and the continued privacy, data privacy of the Filipino citizen.
USEC. BERSALES: Usec. Rocky, I would just like to say this, ang kagandahan dito sa Philippine Identification System, hindi lang po PSA, hindi lang DICT, hindi lang po kaming – ilan tayo dito? – lima, limang agencies ang nakikita ninyo na nag-iisip sa tamang paggawa ng ating Philippine Identification System. Marami po kaming tulung-tulong. So nasabi po kanina SSS, GSIS, PhilHealth; of course, BSP, financial inclusion; now, PCOO. And of course, DFA for our kababayan na out of the country.
So because of that, I am very optimistic that we will do this really well. Of course, if I may say this – if Usec. Lil doesn’t mind – I would always brag that the Philippine Identification System would be really truly Filipino because—actually the funding will come from DBM. So parang magandang siyang, for me, na example of how we should do our national ID system. Filipinos working together and the government itself funding this, not getting from others.
And with kind indulgence, Usec. Rocky, I would like to also request Sir Butch of DFA to say something about how the Philippine Identification System will be done for our other kababayan. Because I just came from a meeting with the Consular Office in Geneva and our Filipino community there are eager about the Philippine Identification System. So if it’s okay, Sir Butch.
DIR. ABEJUELA: Yes, hi. Good morning everybody. Thank you, Usec. Lisa. The composition of our citizens overseas is quite unique and different from what we have here because they basically fall into three major groups. One is, of course, our Overseas Filipino Workers who will eventually return to the Philippines after the end of their contract. Second group is, of course, the immigrants, Filipinos who are immigrants overseas and eventually will become citizens of their host countries. And the third group, are our dual citizen, they’re citizens of their host country and of the Philippines as well. And each particular group requires a different set of approach with regards to the Philippine Identification System. But as Usec. Bersales correctly said, one major advantage is that our citizens who are residents overseas are already familiar with the concept of a national ID system because a lot of the countries where they reside in already have a national ID of sorts.
So sa tingin ko naman, sa tingin namin, hindi ganoon magiging kahirap para kumbinsihin sila para mag-enrol sa PhilSys. And we are looking forward to cooperating and working with the PSA to have all our citizens overseas registered.
USEC. ROCKY IGNACIO: Pero ang reception po nila, positive po?
DIR. ABEJUELA: Yes.
USEC. ROCKY IGNACIO: Okay, maraming salamat, Director Abejuela. And maraming salamat po sa ating mga bisita. Thank you, Malacañang Press Corps. Back to our main studio sa People’s Television Network. Maraming salamat po.
###
SOURCE: PCOO – NIB (News and Information Bureau)
