More than 800,000 have already signed up for the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) via digital registration, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The government is urging Filipinos to sign up for the Philippine identification (PhilID), the national ID, to eliminate inefficient and expensive process of securing physical documents.

Signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte in August 2018, Republic Act 11055, or the Philippine Identification System Act, aims to establish a single national ID for all Filipinos and its residents.

The national ID shall be a valid proof of identity that shall be a means of simplifying public and private transactions, enrolment in schools, and the opening of bank accounts.

Some 849,862 registrants have completed the first step of the PhilSys online registration process by filling out an application form requesting basic personal information such as, full name, gender, date, and place of birth, blood type, and address.

“PSA continues to develop user-management strategies to improve the website and accommodate more registrants,” PSA said in a statement.

The first out of the three steps of the registration process is aimed at boosting the general public’s engagement without compromising health and safety protocols amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nearly 34 million Filipinos have done this process through physical registration.

The cards were printed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which signed a memorandum of agreement with the PSA on October 2019 for the production of 116 million blank cards with security features within three years..

Early this month, the PSA started sending the first batch of PhilID cards through PHLPost (Philippine Postal Corporation), the PSA’s official courier partner.