President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is feeling impatient because of the delayed release of national IDs, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan John Uy said Wednesday.

“So, a lot of delays have already happened and there are many of our countrymen who have been complaining that up to this date, they have not yet received their national ID. And so, the President has expressed his impatience because a lot of things needed to be done and it’s all dependent on the deployment of a national ID,” Uy said at a Palace briefing.

Uy met Marcos during a sectoral meeting on Tuesday where he provided updates on the implementation of the digital Philippine ID and other directives from the President.

“So recently… actually a few months back, the President tasked the DICT to figure out how do we now deploy a national ID without having to wait forever for the plastic ID card. So DICT prepared a study and a plan to deploy a national digital ID which is an identity system that can be loaded on your respective mobile phones,” he added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority is assigned to distribute the physical national IDs.

Uy said the DICT is planning to release the digital national ID by yearend.

“ Our objective is to make it like a Christmas gift to the people, that by the end of the year, we will be able to significantly deploy the digital IDs. So in a few months, we will do our best to be able to deploy the digital ID system,” he said.

In a statement released on June 16, the PSA said it had issued more than 70 million Philippine Identification System IDs (PhilIDs) and ePhilIDs, with 70,271,330 registered under the system. Jaspearl Tan/DMS