42 million national ID cards printed by September 2024 — PSA

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 25) — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) plans to replace the 42 million ePhilIDs with physical national ID cards by September 2024, Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa said Monday.

«Based on their (service provider of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)) schedule, as they presented to us, they will clear everything by 2024,» Mapa said during the National Economic and Development Authority 2024 budget deliberation.

Mapa added that physical national IDs are still needed especially by people living in areas with low connectivity, such as in island barangays and municipalities, which the PSA prioritizes in delivering the physical national IDs.

Mapa made the statement after Senator Ronald «Bato» dela Rosa pushed for national IDs to go fully digital as there have been issues with printing the ID cards.

«We already registered 81 million Filipinos. We already have a clean database, which the telcos can use [for SIM registration],» Mapa said as he noted that 39.1 million national ID cards have been distributed.

The BSP and PSA earlier said insufficient data flow and design changes led to the delay of national ID card production.

In August, PSA said over 50 million Filipinos may receive their national ID cards by the end of 2023.

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