THERE should be an enabling law before the government can start implementing a national identification (ID) system, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita clarified Wednesday.

                “We have to wait first for a particular bill to be filed and approved by Congress and then signed by the`President into law,” Ermita explained.

                During his weekly media briefing in Malacañang, Ermita said the government respects the 1998 Supreme Court ruling that a law needs to be passed before the government can carry out a national ID system.

                “There was this 1998 SC decision stating only Congress can pass a law for such a purpose,” Ermita said.

                What the government can only implement at this time, Ermita said, is the unified ID system under Executive Order 420 requiring “all government agencies and government-owned and -controlled corporations to streamline and harmonize their ID system.”

                Ermita said the existing EO does not include private individuals and its sole purpose is only to harmonize and speed up transactions in the government.

                At their last command conference, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) suggested that a national ID system be carried out for security purposes while some opposition senators called for such implementation but only to speed up transactions in the government.

                If a bill for such purpose is filed whether in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, Ermita said the proposed measure shall be scrutinized and deliberated upon to satisfy the requirement of the greater majority.

                “I heard a press interview with two senators where they agreed to have a national ID system to facilitate transactions in government. The rationale in the statement of the Armed Forces, on the other hand, is to help in our security problem,” Ermita said.

                “I can imagine that when such a bill is filed and debated upon in the floors of both houses of Congress, all these features will be discussed and then they will come up with something that will be suitable and agreeable to everybody,” Ermita said.

                In the event a law is passed for such a purpose, Ermita said the implementation of a national ID system would not be used to spy on individuals nor curtail one’s freedom.

Citizen’s debt audit commish pushed

RESPECTED economists, civil-society leaders and political analysts have launched the people’s petition for the creation of an Independent Citizens’ Debt Audit Commission that will conduct a critical, comprehensive, participatory and transparent examination of the Philippine public debt and contingent liabilities.

THERE should be an enabling law before the government can start implementing a national identification (ID) system, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita clarified Wednesday.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Two senior policemen were shot and killed while they were jogging on Wednesday morning on an airstrip near a military base in Sulu, where the offensive against the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf continues.

THE officer in charge of the Air Transportation Office (ATO) on Wednesday urged President Arroyo to sign a bill that creates the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap), giving autonomy to the aviation body so funds for a full radar coverage of the country could be made available.

MEDIATION talks to resolve the labor dispute between the Philippine National Construction Corp. (PNCC) and its employees’ union came to a deadlock as their representatives sat with labor department officials on Wednesday.

THE multisectoral advisory council of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to meet next week to iron out the specifications for the technology that will be used to automate the 2010 presidential elections, in a move to finally modernize the elections.

A PARTY-LESS legislator said on Wednesday that the 2010 presidential elections should not be limited to “political bosses” even as he raised the need to democratize the selection process this early just like in the United States.