Interesting. Didn't know such a thing already existed in the Philippines. Not sure what to think about it since "Muslim leaders" (whoever those are) don't really oppose of the idea. I honestly think an national ID card should be a requirement for every single Filipino, not just Muslims. Too many people in the Philippines don't have proper identification.
Firstly, would it be possible to have an ID card based on Religious belief? Secondly, would those who twist the Faith to carry out terrorism really be queuing up to get one? Finally, would a system that struggles to put an identity on a motor vehicle cope with carrying out an identity scheme for 100 million plus citizens?
“This is just for the identification of every individual, of every Muslim. If we have the ID system, we will know who the residents are and who the visitors are in a place,” Aquino said, as cited by SunStar. Hmm reminds me of “This is just for the identification of every individual, of every Jew. If we have the ID system, we will know who the residents are and who the visitors are in a place,” Nazi leaders said.
Ask your average Filipino who Hitler was or what the Nazis did and you'll likely be met with blank stares. I do not think they understand what their actions can lead to nor what similar laws in the past have lead to. ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ - George Santayana
Whatever you do don't put the LTO in charge of it. Filipinos with driver's licenses would have proper ID if LTO did not run out of plastic for new or renewed licenses. Also, the system for Filipinos to get or renew a passport is backlogged to the point where it takes 8 weeks to get an appointment. For my son's applications for Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), U.S Passport, and U.S. Social Security number, the U.S. Embassy would not accept my wife's expired Philippine passport nor her driver's license (with the paper renewal receipt) as proper ID. Fortunately she had a Voter's ID card and a BIR card to show as two valid IDs.
This seems like an argument for an official national ID card. A driving license is not a good national ID card as driving is a privilege, not a right and there are many people who go their entire lives without driving. Passports are the same, not everyone travels and few have one. There needs to be a documents/ID card that is issued on birth to every single Filipino....not just Muslims. My 2 cents
In a country where people can already have a postal ID, voters ID, Philhealth ID, School ID, all of which are issued by government owned/run institutions, I would expect that any sort of "national ID" is not replacing any of these and will be just another (non-enforced) ploy to make poor people pay silly amounts of money and spend hours/days in queues. They would probably task yet another new agency that needs thousands of unnecessary staff and hundreds of offices with issuing such ID's and they'll probably be easy to counterfit anyway. So no, not a good idea, not for muslims, not for anyone. As long as there's no registration locally/nationally of who lives where, as long as many people don't even have a proper address, as long as paper records are preferred everywhere over databases that can be shared between government agencies, then all "solutions" to get a grip on a problem regarding identity and movement of people with an ID card is bound to fail.
The linked article has this... Great. I'll start. You're a jackass. Who is this guy? Slow news day I guess. Any regional ID requirements probably wouldn't stand up to a middle finger, let alone a court challenge. Note: IANAL
