Philippine National ID System: An Assessment of the Effects on Philippine Society and Governmental Social Service

Abstract

This study was first thought of during an internship in the office of Bayan Muna representative Teodoro Casino. Since most of the filing of data were being handled by interns, eventually, one day, a news article on the institution of a Philippine National ID System reached the hands of the researcher. The first question that came to mind was the effectiveness of this system to in fact deal with the growing problems and complaints of the slow delivery of government services. Also, being in the employ of a human rights partylist, doubts of possible human rights violation entered the picture. The researcher is one of those who have seen those queues in government offices such as the NBI and the SSS. Therefore the thought of actually having a system that could help alleviate this problem added to the desire to come up with a viable solution to the clash in ideologies and dogmas. But the researcher is also an advocate of human rights and therefore wanted to come up with a system conjunct to NIDS which will pacify the controversy that involves human rights. The researcher has conducted interviews with partylist staffs as well as Japanese nationals in order to gain better understanding of the system that is already in place as well as the dynamics of a country which already has its own ID system in place. All parties involved have conceded to the problem of government inefficiency in rendering social services. However, both parties are too stubborn to take steps and loosen their dogmas in order to make this system work. Hopefully, this study will be able to strike a balance between both sides' demands and come up with the best possible compromise.