A member of the House of Representatives queried officials of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Monday, Sept. 26, regarding the delay of the roll-out of the national ID system as the chamber completed plenary sponsorship and debate on the agency’s P7.232-billion proposed budget for fiscal year 2023.
Photo from Congress
Makati City representative Luis Campos Jr., the DICT budget sponsor, answered queries from his colleagues about the agency’s policies, programs and plans.
During interpellation, Northern Samar representative Paul Ruiz Daza raised the problem of delayed issuance of the National ID cards and asked how the DICT can help the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) solve the matter.
“I don’t know what happened. In the law that established a National ID System, it provided that the PSA should be in charge of it. I don’t want to second guess the wisdom of the previous Congress, but I think it was an error. Could you shed some light on how the DICT can help the NEDA and the PSA on the national ID system? It’s delayed, the product is substandard, it’s all over social media, (and) there are so many complaints. Please share some good comments and moving forward (solutions) how DICT can help the PSA on this,” Daza said.
Campos said the solution would entail the principle “learning by doing.” “From experience, we have learned that there were drawbacks to having the PSA as the lead agency on the National ID System. Maybe at this juncture, we can allow the DICT to have an expanded role in the implementation of the National ID System,” he said.
Campos also suggested that maybe Congress could revisit the law on the creation of the National ID System to make it more efficient.
In response, Daza said that in case the majority would sponsor any legislation or resolutions regarding the National ID System, he vowed to persuade his fellow minority members to support the move.
