All digital versions of the Philippine Identification System Cards (PhilSys ID) are expected to be out before the year ends, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Wednesday.

This after NEDA through the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) tapped the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) for the production of the digital PhilSys ID or National ID, which will be in the form of a "unique number."

"We should first make those digital IDs so that anyone who has a phone can already use the digital ID and that is now the primary responsibility of the DICT," NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a press briefing in Malacanang last Wednesday.

Under the agreement, the production of the digital ID will be handled by DICT, while PSA will still print and distribute the physical version of the National ID.

Last May, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recommended to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to issue an executive order allowing DICT to produce the digital PhilSys IDs.

"We are more than halfway in the physical ID but I said we want to speed up the digital ID so that hopefully before the end of the year it will be completed [and], everyone will have a digital ID," Balisacan said.

As of August 2, PSA said over 80 million have registered to avail of the PhilSys ID. DMS