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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| National ID: Why Not? By Antonio C. Abaya October 10, 2001 Whether or not the Philippines should adopt a national identification system has been a recurring debate since the Aquino administration, and I have consistently supported it, but not for the reasons being advanced for it. Both the Aquino Government and the subsequent Ramos Government have justified it on the grounds that it would help in the counter-insurgency campaign. I recall Ramos� National Security Adviser Jose Almonte envisioning a scenario in which, to catch a few communist rebels, the daily movement of tens of thousands of people would be monitored thru their IDs which they would have to present whenever they checked into a hotel, flew an airplane, sailed on a boat or rode a bus. Honestly, JoeAl, did you really think that an army of bureaucrats, going through mountains of almost entirely useless information everyday, could net enough rebels to make the exercise worth the enormous expense? Besides, packaging the system as a security device to root out communist rebels was bound to raise the hackles, as it indeed did during both the Aquino and Ramos governments, of bleeding-heart liberals objecting to the Big Brother implications of the system, as well as of communists and communist sympathizers, especially in media, wary of any government measure that would in any way restrict their freedom of maneuver as they pursued their silly revolution. ***** The resistance of communists and communist sympathizers to the national ID stems from their fears that it might be used against them, knowing fully well that if and when they manage to grab state power, THEY would use it against those who disagree with them. All countries that had the misfortune of falling under allegedly scientific socialist regimes had national ID systems, only they called it an internal passport. In the late, unlamented Soviet Union, the internal passport was called propiska. Every Soviet citizen was required to carry his or her propiska at all times, and had to show it to the police or the militia anytime they demanded it. The propiska carried, among other things, the registered address of the passport-holder and any deviation from it raised suspicions that he or she was up to no good. Under Soviet law, no one could stay in a place other than his/her registered address for more than 72 hours, without the explcit knowledge and permission of the police or militia as notated in the propiska. Even moving from one flat to another on the same floor in the same apartment building required police or militia approval duly indicated in the propiska. Almonte must have had the Soviet model in mind when he tried to sell the national ID during the Ramos presidency as a means of keeping track of the daily movement of tens of thousands of people. It speaks volumes of the hypocrisy of communists and their sympathizers that they blocked and continue to block the national ID even though they know that in the allegedly perfect society that they are trying so hard to impose on us, a Soviet-style (or Maoist-style) internal passport � another name for a national ID � would be one of the first measures of social control that they would institutionalize. ***** The Arroyo Government should not make the mistake to trying to revive the national ID as a means for tracking down �terrorists�, the villains of the month. It would be the same discredited Almonte � or Soviet � model all over again, only this time the prey would have a turban and a beard and/or would have a strong aversion to eating pork. It would be more sensible to reconceptualize the idea and to repackage it as an electronic voter�s ID card which is meant to cleanse the voters� lists of multiple registrants or flying voters. Who can possibly be against the idea of purging our elections of flying voters? And if a law were passed making compulsory the one-time registration (for voting purposes) of all citizens 18 years or older � as it is in liberal, pastoral, rights-conscious and non-controversial New Zealand � then that would cover the entire adult population. With that basic universe in place, laws can then be passed that would require the presentation of that Voter�s ID card whenever anyone applies for a driver�s license, passport, NBI clearance, court clearance, marriage license, business license, SSS or GSIS membership, credit card, bank account, bank loan, housing mortgage, foreign visas, tax refund, medical and hospitalization benefits, car rental, SEC incorporation, civil and criminal court litigation, birth and death certificates, land titles, chattel mortage, power and telephone connections, post-high school education, cable TV connection and various other transactions that are part of modern life. The idea is for the applicant to prove that he or she is who he or she claims to be. It would replace the useless, unverifiable and easily acquired community tax receipt, formerly known as the residence certificate, which one can legally buy at any municipio under as many false names and false addresses as one has illegal need of. In fact, variations of such a multi-use electronic ID card system have been in place for decades in the liberal, rights-conscious, predominantly social-democratic countries of Western Europe, where � with the possible exception of France � the police do not demand it of citizens at random, where there are no penalties for not carrying it in one�s person, where one can even opt not to register for it, but where one cannot transact any business with government agencies or with private entities without it. In the Philippines, where the faking of public and private documents is both a cottage industry and an art, a foolproof and Filipino-proof electronic ID card would go a long way towards weeding out not only flying voters but also a wide slew of conmen, swindlers, tax evaders and other parasites. Cross-referencing the data can, for example, show who have been traveling abroad often but who have been paying little or no income tax. It can also show which bank loan applicant has a string of estafa cases against him or her. Or which prospective new tenant has unpaid rentals and/or unpaid utilities bills in a previous address. Or which cheating contractor has been operating behind which corporate names. And so on. And if, in its processes, the system also snares a rebel or a terrorist, well and good, but that should not be its primary goal. ***** This article appeared in the October 29, 2001 issue of the Philippine Weekly Graphic magazine. |