Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said on Wednesday that the proposed Unified National ID System Act has already been endorsed to President Rodrigo Duterte for certification as “urgent.”
“I am pleased to note that the proposed Unified National ID System Act was endorsed by the Executive Committee of the Legislative-Executive Development Authority Council for certification by the President as ‘urgent’,” Pernia said in his remarks during the Philippine Development Forum 2017 in Mandaluyong City.
The proposal, filed by Caloocan Representative Edgar R. Erice, was approved by the House Committee on Population and Family Relations in May.
The measure seeks to unify all government transactions under one identification card which will be the “official identity verification” of all Filipino citizens.
The proposed ID will contain personal information, including a person’s name, permanent address, age, gender, and a photo.
Other biometric information such as fingerprints will also be contained in a chip inside the ID.
“The bill is included in both the Common Legislative Priorities of Congress and the President’s Legislative Agenda [PLA],” Pernia said Wednesday.
A similar bill was filed by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in the Senate, which he said would provide the government with a single database of Filipinos who can benefit from its services.
On Monday, the president submitted to Congress the administration’s proposed 2018 national budget — the earliest submission of a spending plan since the Ramos administration.
In his speech, the President vowed that the poor will be the first to experience the benefits of increased public spending for next year.
“This is to make due course that the people understand how their taxes will be spent. It is in this regard that I am submitting the P3.767 trillion 2018 budget here today. The poor and the vulnerable are at the heart of my national budget that can be felt immediately by them,” he said.
The President asked the Senate to “pass in whole” the first package of his comprehensive tax reform package, which recently passed approval in the House.
“The fate of tax reform is now in the hands of the Senate. I leave it upto you,” he said. “I call on the Senate to support it in full and pass it without haste.”
Among the priority measures that Duterte asked before Congress were:
– The passage of a National Land Use Act or NALUA to ensure the rational and sustainable use of our land and our physical resources, given the competing needs of food security, housing, businesses and environmental conservation; Reimposition of capital punishment; Womb to tomb services and bonuses for employees of government owned and controlled corporations.
