Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 13) — Amid lagging distribution numbers, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to hasten the issuance of the digital National ID or the ePhilID.

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“Naiwanan na tayo sa technology (we’ve been left behind in terms of technology), so we have to catch up,” Marcos said during a meeting with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) on Thursday.

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Marcos issued a directive to the PSA to hasten its distribution of the IDs during the PSAC meeting.

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He also highlighted the Public-Private Partnership proposal between the PSA and the private sector and asked that the latter aid in the distribution of the digital IDs.

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According to the PSA, one of the implementing agencies of the project, 10,126,352 ePhilIDs had been issued by December 2022. This is only half of the projected target of 19.9 million ePhilIDs by the end of 2022.

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READ: PSA confident to meet year-end target of printing 30.1 million nat’l IDs

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Marcos earlier promised the delivery of 50 million National IDs by the end of 2022 in his State of the Nation Address.

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READ: Marcos promises to deliver 50 million national IDs by year-end

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