MANILA - President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has ordered the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to fast track the printing of the digital national ID amid issues being encountered by the agency, Malacañang said Tuesday.

The ePhilID (electronic Philippine ID) is a printed digital ID with security features. This serves as a temporary national ID pending the issuance of the physical one.

With the ePhilID, "registered persons can immediately utilize the benefits of PhilSys, such as faster and seamless transactions in accessing financial and social protection services," PSA's website read.

• PSA eyes issuing unique PhilSys number to registrants by first quarter of 2023

"Let us print out as much as we can and then isunod natin 'yung physical ID as soon as we can," said Marcos during his meeting with Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and other officials of the PSA.

In mid-November, PhilSys registration officer-in-charge Engineer Fred Sollesta said his agency targets to generate a total of 20 million ePhilIDs by this month.

The printing issues were attributed to the "late start of the flow of data and the volume of the data which is less than what is supposed to be," based on Malacañang's press release.

These problems have been rectified, said PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa.

Sollesta had also said 71.1 million Filipinos have already registered for the national ID, with 25 million physical cards already issued.

The agency is also eyeing to issue a unique Philippine Identification System number to all registrants by the first quarter of 2023.

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