The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said Wednesday that it is looking at releasing digital national IDs instead of a physical copy.

In a press briefing, Information and Communications Secretary Ivan Uy said the delay in the release of national IDs was because there were issues with the kind of printer being used.

“The issue has always been the printing of the plastic card which is meeting some issues because of the type of printer that’s being used. So we are looking for different deployment strategies for that. The approach that we’re looking at is to deploy digital IDs first. Instead of waiting for the physical printed, physical tangible IDs,” Uy told reporters.

The digital national IDs could be stored in mobile devices and be authenticated by scanning their QR code, he added.

“I think that’s the way to go so that we’ll be able to activate the national ID as soon as possible,” Uy said.

Releasing digital IDs would also speed up the government’s distribution of aid to the poor and to drivers, said Uy.

“This will speed up our amelioration programs or assistance to tricycle drivers and jeepney drivers, and of course, 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) and so on,” he said.

Over 14 million national IDs have been issued as of July 8, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS