MANILA, Philippines – The Social Security System (SSS), the state pension fund for private employees, has started production of new identification cards which may also be used to facilitate transactions with partner government agencies.
In a press briefing yesterday, SSS president and chief executive officer Emilio de Quiros Jr. said the issuance of the new cards under the Unified Multipurpose Identification System (UMID) would begin before the end of the month.
Members with old IDs may still use them, or have them replaced for P300.
De Quiros said the new card is not a national ID and the data stored inside are protected and will not be used against the bearer for whatever reason.
“A national ID is something that is mandatory. We are not doing that. This is not for police work,” he said.
Other government agencies that have joined the UMID system are the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp.
“We’ve invited other agencies to join the UMID system,” De Quiros said. Also being invited are the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Commission on Elections.
De Quiros said banks may even tie up with government financial institutions or other agencies for the use of the SSS cards as ATM cards.
Many SSS members still don’t have cards. The situation worsened when the SSS card facility conked out, forcing the agency to stop card production in April 2010 after more than 10 years in operation.
“Members who have been waiting for their IDs after SSS card production stopped in April would be the first to get their UMID cards,” De Quiros said.
It has so far issued 11 million cards since production started in 1998.
The new UMID card, a sample of which was presented to media yesterday, has a contactless chip and a magnetic stripe that can store information. The card can be used for transactions such as withdrawing SSS benefits and loans from ATM teller machines or kiosks.
“Other state agencies can also join the UMID, which uses biometric technology and fingerprint matching to determine a person’s identity, so more people can reap the benefits,” De Quiros said.
Card production has started at 5,000 cards per day and this would soon increase to a maximum of 20,000 cards to eliminate backlog. The SSS has a backlog of about 600,000 cards.
“We expect to eliminate this (backlog) in two months,” he said. –Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)
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