MANILA, Philippines – In response to the spread of fake identification cards for persons with disabilities, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) plans to roll out a unified PWD ID by the end of 2025.
This ID with a standard design for PWDs across the Philippines will eventually replace the current IDs, which have different designs per local government unit (LGU) and are prone to counterfeiting.
In 2024, restaurant owners expressed alarm over what they described as a surge in fake PWD IDs. One of their proposals was for the government to create an ID with just one design.
Until June 2025, the DSWD will be conducting pilot testing for the unified ID, which will have physical and digital versions. It will be RFID-enabled, or with Radio Frequency Identification technology, and the person’s biometrics data will be captured.
Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao told radio station DZBB on Sunday, February 9, that the DSWD is coordinating with the National Privacy Commission and the Department of Information and Communications Technology to ensure collected information would be safeguarded.
Application for the unified PWD ID would still be done through an LGU’s Persons with Disability Affairs Office or PDAO, which would then encode the person’s data into an online system in real time. The DSWD would then issue the ID, to be picked up at the local PDAO.
Establishments, such as restaurants, would be able to access the online system.
“Ito kasi ‘yung worry nila…kung verified ba ito. Dati ang ginagawa nila is tatawag pa sa LGU…. With the unified ID system, makikita na po nila kung ‘yung iprinesenta na person with disability ID ay the same doon sa lalabas doon sa system,” Dumlao said in the DZBB interview.
(Their worry is whether the PWD ID is verified or not. They would usually have to call the LGU to verify. With the unified ID system, they will be able to see if the person with disability ID that was presented is the same as what will appear in the system.)
The promised real-time encoding of data and reliable verification would address issues with the existing Philippine Registry for Persons with Disabilities, which is not always immediately updated by LGUs and entails manual batch uploading of data.
But the Department of Justice, in a legal opinion, has also said that establishments cannot deny discounts when unverified PWD IDs are presented, because the law does not require verification for cardholders to be granted benefits.
Under Republic Act No. 10754, PWDs are entitled to 12% value-added tax exemption and a 20% discount on certain goods and services, including restaurant purchases.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian previously said an estimated P88.2 billion in taxes were lost in 2023 due to fake PWD IDs.
The Philippines has 1.93 million registered PWDs as of January 8, based on data from the National Council on Disability Affairs. – Rappler.com