Filipinos were reminded about the status and application of their national identification card (ID) after it suddenly trended on local Twitter since Tuesday.
According to a site monitoring trends on the platform, the keyword “National ID” started to trend about 20 hours ago as of Wednesday morning.
As of this writing, it is on the 16th spot of the top trending list of Twitter Philippines.
Clicking the keyword brings users to tweets of Filipinos wondering about the statuses of their own IDs under the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ever since they applied for it.
Others were more concerned about how they had looked while their pictures for the ID were taken during application.
Meanwhile, those who have already received their own IDs also shared their own comments after seeing the keyword trend.
It is unclear how the keyword had trended but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas recently encouraged Filipinos to use it to help prevent red tape in the government.
“EO 162 is supportive of the Duterte administration’s thrust to eliminate red tape in government transactions,” BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said on a February 28 report.
He was referring to Executive Order 162 that was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte which institutionalizes the acceptance of the national ID.
It states that no additional proof of identity or age “shall be required upon presentation of the PhilID, PhilSys Number (PSN), or PSN derivative as authenticated.”
It will prevent red tape and excessive bureaucracy or complications that require unnecessary paperwork.
Furthermore, the national ID may be presented in lieu of a birth certificate for transactions that require individuals to establish their age, including applications for the following:
- Marriage licenses
- Land Transportation Office student permits and conductor’s licenses
- Enrollment for kindergarten, first grade, and Philippine Educational Placement Test passers
- Professional Regulation Commission and Bar Licensure Examinations
The BSP also issued a memorandum reminding BSP-supervised financial institutions to accept the PhilSys ID, in both physical and mobile formats, as sufficient proof of identity.
The national ID system aims to establish a single identification card or system for all citizens in the Philippines.
This will also replace over 46 existing government IDs to provide better convenience in transactions.
Pre-registration started in October 2020. The delivery of IDs may take up to six months “due to the massive number of registrations” the statistics agency is processing.
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