THE Philippine Statistics Authority said that they had so far printed some 60% of the physical copies of the national identification cards (IDs).

According to the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) Registry Office Deputy National Statistician Fred Sollesta, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that they had printed some 54 million physical national ID cards.

They said that some 50 million had been delivered by the Philippine Post Office (PhilPost).

"Iyong printing natin sa physical card ay nasa BSP iyon, so tuluy-tuloy naman iyong printing natin. Iyon lang, iyong capacity natin to print ay nasa 80,000 per day ‘no. And when we started the registration in 2021, napakataas ng ating turnout sa registration, umaabot siya ng 300 to 400,000 per day," Sollesta said.

"So nakaabot tayo ng 53 million registration in 2021 alone, so nagkaroon lang tayo ng bottleneck. Pero it was expected na with the rate na iyong printing natin, matapos natin ito maybe this year sa 2024," he said.

Likewise, Sollesta noted that to date, the total registrations for the PhilSys has already reached 85 million.

"Sa registration natin, umabot na tayo ng 85 million. And then iyong na-deliver na natin na cards na galing sa BSP, iyong physical card ay 50 million. And then noong nag-start tayo noong ePhilID to supplement the delivery of the physical card, umabot na tayo ng mga 45 million and then may a couple of millions doon sa collaboration ng PSA and DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) na digital ID (For the registration, we have reached 85 million. And then the cards that we have already delivered from the BSP, the physical card is 50 million. And then when we started with ePhilID to supplement the delivery of the physical card, we reached about 45 million and then there are a couple of millions there with the collaboration of PSA and DICT which is digital ID)," he said.

Sollesta likewise said that the registration still continues.

"So, para ating kababayan na mga hindi pa nagpapa-register ano, hinihikayat namin kayo na magtungo sa alinmang registration center na malapit sa inyong lugar and magdala kayo ng mga supporting documents ‘no, of course isa diyan iyong mga birth certificate, iyong mga other IDs na may photo," he added.

There are currently 86 registration centers nationwide, excluding those located inside malls.