’Odette’ slows down nat’l ID list-up in NegOr

The onslaught of Typhoon Odette in Negros Oriental on the evening of Dec. 16, 2021, has slowed down the registration of residents to the government’s national identification program.

Engr. Ariel Fortuito, provincial chief of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-Negros Oriental, told the Philippine News Agency in an interview on Wednesday that they failed to reach their target registrants of 854,257 for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) after “Odette” left several towns and cities devastated.

“The typhoon caused a massive power outage in the central and northern parts of the province and while some registration kits were still working on backup power, only a few people managed to sign up with us as many others were badly affected by the storm,” he said in mixed English and Cebuano.

Despite the slowdown, the PSA-Negros Oriental still logged a high accomplishment rate of 98.70 percent of the target as of Dec. 31, 2021, he noted.

Records at the PSA-Negros Oriental showed that from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2021, a total of 843,127 people had registered under Step 2 of the PhilSys program.

The five local government units (LGUs) with the highest number of registrants are Dumaguete City, 84,390; Bayawan City, 73,790; Guihulngan City, 64,673; Tanjay City, 55,516; and Bais City, 49,589.

The remaining workload is pegged at 11,130 registrants, Fortuito said.

The national ID registration in Negros Oriental is put on hold for now based on a memorandum from the PSA central office but is expected to resume by the third week of this month, he said.

Signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055 or the Philippine Identification System Act aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and resident aliens.

The national ID will be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, enrollment in schools, and the opening of bank accounts.

It will also boost efficiency, especially in dealing with government services where people will only need to present one ID during transactions.

Source: Philippines News Agency

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