Personal ID

     Sometime last year, I got my new Philippine ID, a national identification card system requiring all citizens of the country to have. I was one of the first few who went to apply as I salute the move, late as it may but it's a must.

My  new National ID

     Had there been no national ID, many of the local poor folks would have no identification card. The upper class and the working class has other IDs such as SSS, their social security system ID card. Now with this ID, with or without job, you have proof of your identity.

     When I worked in Malaysia, they asked me what ID do we have. They were surprised to find out we have no national ID. I only have my passport to identify myself. I was all praises to the Malaysian national ID, which is similar to the ones they have in Singapore. It links all their information in government agencies, their ID number is linked to all their records, public and private. With the national ID, they can trace all their records in any bureaucracy. In Singapore where I worked, even foreign nationals are given a national ID, and we can pass through immigration without showing our passport. Of course, the ID numbers are coded to identify that you are a foreigner.

     I hope the government implemented this national ID system in order to come up with a unified database. This will solve most of the record issues of the citizens. With what I am seeing, I doubt if it's what the government is aiming for implementing the national ID system. If not, then it's a futile exercise, a waste of resources, like many other programs which they do  because other countries are doing it