But according to the Comelec officer, I have no use for it since my picture was already printed beside my name in the voters’ list.
I didn’t have to bring out any of my ID cards from my wallet that was bulging, not with a wad of money, but with SSS, GSIS, driver’s license, S and R, SM Advantage, senior citizen’s, and company ID cards.
I still have to get my PhilHealth, postal and barangay ID cards so I could eventually join a club that requires a member to present at least ten different authorized ID cards.
In the Philippines, everybody must carry at least two ID cards. In transacting with financial establishments, one gets nowhere if he has only one. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas requires the presentation of at least one authorized ID card that has been issued by a government agency. In practice, he would be required to present two.
Most ID cards now employ biometrics technology, which the Social Security System pioneered on a large-scale basis during the term of SSS President Renato Valencia. Launched in 1997, its SSS Biometrics ID System aimed to “speed up member identification, help prevent fraud, and eventually lead to self-service.”
The system obtains the person’s biometrics consisting of fingerprints, picture, and signature. These are then compared with all the other existing biometrics in the system’s database. The biometrics comparison must be very accurate and able to detect whenever the same person assumes another identity by re-enrolling. On the other hand, it should also establish the uniqueness of persons that have similar biometrics.
Imagine the number of comparisons that must be done when the size of the database has reached 10 million! It is no wonder that SSS takes so long to release its biometrics ID cards, which are produced only for those with unique biometrics.
By ignoring the intolerable slow release of its cards, we can declare that SSS has accomplished its identification and fraud control objectives, but nothing more. Unexpectedly, our overseas workers in Taiwan and elsewhere are using their SSS ID cards to establish their true identity. Foreign governments seem to rely more on those ID cards than on our passports.
The Government Service Insurance System adopted a similar system, and has had more success in the use of its cards for self-service purposes. GSIS members and pensioners now simply use their UMID-compliant cards in the G-WAPS computer facilities in numerous government agencies and shopping malls to apply for loans and in place of personally reporting to GSIS.
The proliferation of government agency-issued ID cards has prompted previous administrations to unify them into a common card that could be used for various purposes. With strong backing from President Gloria Arroyo, the Unified Multi-Purpose Identification System was established in 2009 and funded at P3 billion “to streamline, harmonize, and unify existing ID systems in government through the Common Reference Number.”
If this number is properly issued without duplication and multiple issuances to individuals, it would be our de facto national ID number. These CRNs, still underused, are now quietly being included by the SSS and GSIS in their members’ ID cards. To a suspicious mind, this is the prelude to a national ID system, which appears to be the least concern of the Aquino administration.
A UMID-compliant card issued by a participating government agency is supposed to contain all the personal data that are necessary in transacting with any of them. Its owner need not obtain separate ID cards. In March 2009, didn’t then-SSS President Romulo Neri announce it could be used for the 2010 elections?
My UMID-compliant SSS card is by design enough in transacting GSIS and PhilHealth matters. Instead of three ID cards, I need to carry only one. With it, I should also be able to claim senior citizen’s discounts since it bears my date of birth.
In reality, I could only use my SSS-issued ID card for identification and in recalling my SSS number. I still have to use my GSIS card in conveniently withdrawing my monthly GSIS pension from any bank’s ATM.
The one that I truly desire to have is a UMID-compliant Comelec ID card. Possessing it would not only make me belong to the country’s possibly largest biometrics card system; it would also demonstrate my uniqueness from the rest of the 100 million Filipinos.
When I visited the local Comelec office early this year to get my ID card, I was made to believe that it would be issued soon. But with all the problems confronting Comelec regarding precinct count optical scan machines and compact flash cards, I doubt that it would ever be released in time for the 2016 presidential election.
Perhaps what we all need is a multi-purpose national ID card if only to lighten our wallets of the numerous ID cards that we now must carry.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Horace Templo
Quelle/Source: Manila Standard Today, 31.05.2013
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