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National
ID System: 6 Reasons Why it Should
Be Rejected
Today,
we entrust considerable amounts of personal information to our national
government. Unfortunately,
the Arroyo regime, acting in rash US-inspired anti-terrorist paranoia or
for less noble motives, have time and again violated the public's trust.
BY
EMILIO
B. CINCO
Re-posted by Bulatlat.com
The
recent bombings in the South and within Metro Manila and the Arroyo
government’s inability to prevent these acts have revived proposals for a
national identity card system as a way to supposedly verify the identity of
citizens and prevent terrorists from entering the country.
The
newest calls for a national ID are the latest in a long series of proposals that
have cropped up repeatedly over the past decade under the so called
Anti-Terrorism Bill. It offers only a false sense of security and will not enhance
our security – but will pose serious threats to our civil liberties and
civil/human rights. A
National ID will not keep us safe or free.
1.
A national ID system would not solve the problem that is inspiring it.
(It is a solution in search of a problem.)
A
national ID card system will not prevent terrorism. It would not have thwarted
the September 11 hijackers, for example, many of whom reportedly had
identification documents on them, and were in the United States legally.
Terrorists
and criminals will continue to be able to obtain -- by legal and illegal means
-- the documents needed to get a government ID, such as birth certificates.
Yes, these new documents will have data like digital fingerprints on
them, but that won’t prove real identity – just that the carrier has
obtained what could easily be a fraudulent document.
It
is an impractical and ineffective proposal – a simplistic and naïve attempt
to use gee-whiz technology to solve complex social and economic problems.
2.
2. ID cards would function as “internal passports”
that monitor citizens’ movements.
Filipinos
have long had a visceral aversion to building a society in which the
authorities could act like totalitarian sentries and demand “your ID’s
please!” And that everyday intrusiveness would be conjoined with the
full power of modern computer and database technology. When a police officer or security guard scans your ID card
with his pocket bar-code reader, for example, will a permanent record be
created of that check, including the time and your location? How long before office buildings, doctors’ offices, gas
stations, highway tolls, hotels and buses incorporate the ID card into their
security or payment systems for greater efficiency? The result could be a
nation where citizens’ movements inside their own country are monitored and
recorded through these “internal passports.”
Being
required to have an ID in your own country is reminiscent of the cedula
during the Spanish Era.
3.
3. An ID system will lead to a slippery slope
of surveillance and monitoring of citizens.
A
national ID card system would not protect us from terrorism, but it would
create a system of internal passports that would significantly diminish the
freedom and privacy of law-abiding citizens.
Once put in place, it is exceedingly unlikely that such a system would
be restricted to its original purpose. A
national ID system would threaten the privacy that Filipinos have always
enjoyed and gradually increase the control that government and business wields
over everyday citizens.
How
many ID’s do we really need? (TIN, SSS/GSIS, Driver’s License, Passport,
Postal ID, Voter’s ID, Phil Health, PRC, etc.).
Having a thick wallet does not necessarily mean its' all money.
4.
4. ID cards would foster new forms of
discrimination and harassment.
Rather
than eliminating discrimination, as some have claimed, a national identity
card would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment of anyone
perceived as looking or sounding "foreign" (more specifically
Muslim). This will also expand to
include perceived enemies or critics of the state.
Failure
to carry a national ID card would likely come to be viewed as a reason for
search, detention or even arrest. The
stigma and humiliation of constantly having to prove who they are would weigh heavily on such groups.
5.
A national ID card system would require creation of a database of all Filipinos.
What
happens when an ID card is stolen? What
proof is used to decide who gets a card?
A national ID would require a governmental database of every person in
the Philippines containing continually updated identifying information. It
would likely contain many errors, any one of which could render someone
unemployable and possibly much worse until they get their “file”
straightened out. And once that database was created, its use would almost
certainly expand. Law enforcement and other government agencies would soon ask
to link into it, while employers, landlords, credit agencies, mortgage
brokers, direct mailers, landlords, private investigators, civil litigants,
and a long list of other parties would begin seeking access, further eroding
the privacy that Filipinos have always expected in their personal lives.
An ID system today might be a tattooed bar code tomorrow.
6.
6. ID cards would just be another source of wide-spread
corruption.
The
proposed national ID system will be heavily technology-dependent and requires
importation of computer hardware and software.
This project will easily run in hundred of millions or even tens of
billions of pesos. In these times
of severe economic hardships, where does the Arroyo government intend to get
its funding? (US Aid, additional taxes, etc.?)
History
has proven that large projects tend to be magnets for large-scale grafters and
plunderers. From the time it is
bidded out to its eventual awarding, how
much of the taxpayers’ money will end up in the pockets of these corrupt
individuals?
Who
watches the watchmen? Even if the system
works perfectly, however, interfacing flawlessly designed, un-crackable cards
through a secure reader to a database system full only of well-verified, lawful
information on citizens, accessible only to properly-authorized civil
authorities, one factor can never be engineered away: even a perfectly-built
system is corruptible by imperfect individuals.
Today,
we entrust considerable amounts of personal information to our national
governments. Unfortunately, the
Arroyo regime, acting in rash US-inspired anti-terrorist paranoia or for less
noble motives, have time and again violated the public's trust.
Sometimes
technology alone will not work. Posted by Bulatlat.com
EMILIO
B. CINCO
Chairman,
Preparatory Committee
Computer
Professionals’ Union (CPU)
(CPU
is a mass organization of information and communications technology
professionals, practitioners, and workers critical with the current state of ICT
in the Philippines and its impact on ICT workers and the Filipino people.)
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