By Malaya Business Insight – September 4, 2024

THE Monetary Board, which sets the policies of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), made the correct move in terminating the P2.1-billion contract for the manufacture and distribution of the national identification cards.

The BSP said only 57.9 million personalized national ID cards were actually produced by the contractor, All Card Inc. (ACI) between 2022 and 2023, 58.3 million short of the target 116 million cards. This resulted in a production loss of P1.06 billion, equivalent to 49.91 percent of the contract amount awarded to ACI.

For its deficiency, the central bank is asking the contractor to pay P640.9 million in total liquidated damages, or equivalent to 30.24 percent of the contract price. With the case now under arbitration, the ACI has asked for a thorough review of its performance and appealed the decision.

The six-year-old national ID project started when Republic Act 11055 was enacted, and former Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the principal sponsor in the Senate of the Philippine Identification System Act, has pointed out that the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) has already received P6 billion from Congress since 2018 to implement the project.

The Bangko Sentral, with its printing capability, was engaged by the PSA to manufacture the IDs, and the job was obviously messed up by then Bangko Sentral of the Philippines governor Benjamin Diokno, the highest-paid government official with a salary and allowances totaling more than P40 million a year.

People complained that more than a year after their personal data and digital photos and biometrics were taken, the IDs were still undelivered. When the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, then President Rodrigo Duterte had to fire Ernesto Pernia, chief of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), because Digong wanted the fast distribution of assistance to the people, yet the IDs were not available. Diokno should have been fired, too, but he was rewarded with the Department of Finance portfolio by President Marcos Jr. and is still sitting comfortably in the Monetary Board up to this day.

From two Senate personalities who reacted to this development, Lacson has a more relevant one. He said this case should not end just with the termination of the contract. “Following proper legal procedures, sanctions with commensurate damages must be imposed,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Aquino Pimentel III said he would file a resolution pushing for a Senate inquiry into the matter. Pimentel said it looks like “we will have further delays in the production and delivery of the national IDs. This should be investigated by the Senate.”

It is incumbent on the Monetary Board (MB) to undo its mistake in the award of the contract to a firm that had been given all the funds and opportunities to make good on its part of the deal. For once, the MB should do its job as its members are among the highest-paid government officials around, and even with perks such as having their relatives and friends on the payroll as consultants or worse, ghost employees.