The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday said around 30 provinces will be the priority in the mass registration of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) starting October.

In a virtual briefing, Interior Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) requested their assistance in securing a memorandum of agreement with local government units.

“PSA is asking MOA so that the different LGUs will give the necessary assistance in terms of pre-registration, the manpower requirement, in terms of transportation, in terms of crowd control as well as other logistical support," Malaya said.

According to Malaya, the 32 priority areas are Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Cagayan, Isabela, Bataan, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Zambales, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Albay, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Leyte, Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental, and Tawi-Tawi.

He said the mass registration for the national identification (ID) system would push through in the first week of October.

“In our last Philsys meeting, it was mentioned we will proceed to roll out of our pre-registration this first week of October,” the DILG official said.

"We will continue this until we are able to initially register the five million re-registrants and five million registrants before the end of the year," he said.

Malaya said the rest of the country will be done by next year.

In the same briefing, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said they chose the areas to start the pre-registration based on the COVID-19 cases in those areas.

“With respect to 32 provinces, we are looking at those with low incidence or low number of active cases of COVID-19 because we want this initiative to be safe for the public,” Edillon said.

She said the pre-registration is just collecting information on social demographics.

“So there will be no fingerprints or iris scan because collecting this biometric information will mean individuals will go to testing centers so it is not safe,” she added.

Last 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys Act), or Republic Act No. 11055, which aims to harmonize and integrate several government IDs by putting up a single national identification system. Ella Dionisio/DMS