ICC clears P2.5-B National ID project upgrade
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has secured the go-ahead from the Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee to move forward with its P2.48-billion project to upgrade the national ID system with the help of the private sector.
The approval clears the way for the PSA to proceed to the procurement stage, where it will conduct a comparative challenge to match or improve the unsolicited proposal submitted by Unisys Public Sector Services Corp.
Dubbed the Philippine Digital National Identity (PDNI), the project is a public-private partnership (PPP) aimed at upgrading, operating and maintaining the existing national ID system.
The project will cover national ID registration, card production, authentication services, technical onboarding and integration of private-sector relying parties, as well as the operation of the information technology infrastructure.
“Through this partnership, we can harness the expertise and resources of the private sector while ensuring that the National ID remains firmly anchored in its public purpose—to provide Filipinos with a trusted and convenient means of proof of identity to access critical services,” PSA Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa said in a statement.
The project will be implemented through a build-transfer-operate arrangement, with a 20-year concession period following a six-month transition period.
Following the approval, the PSA has already published its invitation to submit comparative proposals, under which the winning bidder will finance system upgrade and operate the project.
A prebid conference is scheduled for Nov. 9, while the submission of comparative proposals is set for Jan. 11 next year.
Should Unisys match the highest bid, the agreement will be awarded to the company.
The national ID system was passed into law in 2018, but its full implementation has since been delayed, which Mapa, in a Senate budget hearing on Monday, attributed to the pandemic.
Mapa added that 97 million Filipinos out of a population of 114 million had been registered under the system from 2018 to 2026.
For 2027, the PSA is proposing a P2.37-billion budget for the national ID as it seeks to expand the system from physical cards to digital IDs.
