MANILA, Philippines — The national ID system could have speeded up the distribution of the government’s emergency subsidy distribution during the COVID-19 crisis, President Rodrigo Duterte said in a late-night televised address on Monday night. Duterte said the national ID system would have been a game-changer, but he noted that the left opposed its implementation. “So now you see, we have no ID system until now,” Duterte said in Filipino. “If we have the ID system we could have avoided these delays.”Duterte signed the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys Act), or Republic Act No. Senate President Vicente Sotto III earlier suggested the “full-blown execution” of the national ID system to address the discrepancies between the databases of the national government and the LGUs in distributing the cash aid.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer April 13, 2020 18:59 UTC