One ID
Several members of the 17th Congress seek to establish a unified government identification system or a national identification system to consolidate all government issued IDs into a single official ID for all Filipinos.
Seventeen house bills and four senate bills are currently filed in Congress. Several authors of these bills point out that every ID costs the government and the Filipinos time and money. Most inconvenient for everyone is the unnecessary delay it causes. According to Senator Recto and Congresswoman Santos-Recto, presently, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) identifies that there are twenty-one government-issued IDS. Senator Bam Aquino, however, claims that there are actually 33 different forms of IDs issued by government agencies. Whatever the number is, members of Congress, deem it necessary to have a single Filipino ID that citizens can use to prove their identities. A single ID system would significantly reduce the amount spent by the entire government to supply IDs to Filipinos. Filipinos would also spend significantly less time and money in procuring these different IDs.
It is hoped that this one ID system would improve delivery of government services and streamline government services. It also aims to simplify the process of public and private transactions which at present inefficient due to delays in confirming identities. Finally, it is intended to prevent crimes and enforce laws.
The senate bills are pending with the Committees on Justice and Human Rights and Finance. Three of these bill have been pending with committee since July 26, 2016 while Senator Aquno’s bill has been pending since August 16, 2016. As for the house bills, as of March 1, 2017, all seventeen of them are under study with the Technical Working Group (TWG).
HB00012 - Feliciano Belmonte Jr.
HB00107 - Gary Alejano
HB00171 - Karlo Nograles and Jericho Nograles
HB00317 - Marlyn Primicias-Agabas
HB00368 - Ferdinand Hernandez
HB00512 - Robert Barbers
HB00523 - Alfredo Garbin, Rodel Batocabe and Christopher Co
HB00696 - Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
HB01267 - Rozzano Biazon
HB01687 - Maximo Rodriguez Jr.
HB01711 - Xavier Jesus Romualdo
HB02001 - Frederick Abueg
HB02167 - Vilma Santos-Recto
HB02338 - Amado Espino
HB03425 - Edgar Erice
HB03448 - Arnolfo Teves Jr.
HB04167 - Sol Aragones
SBN917 - Paolo “Bam” Aquino
SBN95 - Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes
SBN69 - Ralph Recto
SBN15 - Franklin Drilon and Loren Legarda