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Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Mercado: Will anonymity, mobility be curbed by ID card?
By Ram Mercado
LIKE the proposed divorce law, the proposal for a national ID system will bog down in endless controversy.
I am disinclined against it because it will affect filial relations and domestic travel.
Family gatherings and traditional reunions will not be complete with the understandable absence of distant relatives who are in underground movement. Unless one is privy to the membership of your "kamag-anak" in various kilusan groups, it will be difficult to distinguish one cousin who is an NPA from another who is an RHB and other germane kin who are either in the bastardized HMB or RGA without their ID cards.
Of course even in they would get their cards, one cannot discover or verify the bearer's affiliation, with the few basic information thereat. It was easier to recognize dissidents in the older days when every male in the countryside in peasant communities is a farmer by day and a Huk at night. Otherwise he was a plain tulisan.
I am sure members of the rebel groups today will take advantage of the ID system, which, like any other man-made creation in the country, can be subverted.
Our countrymen have a point in their skeptical attitude about the ID system as they cite the consistent failure of the Comelec to come up with a foolproof voters ID. Considering the fact that almost every important document, from passport to diplomas, to birth certificates and even the Torrens Title certificate, can be duplicated to near perfection, the proposed ID card will not be exempted from our native ingenuity.
The government is wrong in coupling its anti-terrorism bill with the ID card proposal. Policy planners and pro-administration lawmakers should start watching the Tom and Jerry cartoon, if only to learn practical tricks in how to catch mice. One, like the cat Tom, can only succeed to get his prey if he has a cheese and a trap combined.
What the government is doing is spreading the catch net thus frightening the suspects. Even Jerry the mouse knows his constitutional rights against invasion of privacy. Truth is, the ID card is not a guarantee to insure that the terrorists/rebels/criminals cannot enjoy their anonymity and mobility.
Oppositors to the plan should have no immediate fear or be threatened by the ID card system's effective implementation. There is no budget for that as yet and the ID format would undergo extensive study and review, even after passing scrutiny and muster in Congress.
Most citizens find the idea of a national ID card as an effective tool against all forms of lawlessness and criminality. Others fear the card's potential for abuse, corruption, and suppression of certain rights.
Rebels and law-abiding citizens alike foresee the possibility of trouble in case of failure to present an ID card in a random check. What if the farmer or laborer out in the field or elsewhere has left his card for safekeeping at his residence? Will the peasant while planting or tending his crops always carry his card, which exposes it to accidental loss or premature damage by the elements?
A lost card, misplaced, stolen, whatever, will be another headache to its owner. One who has lost a driver's license will not forget the trouble and ordeal of reporting it to the LTO and the long process and wait for its replacement. In the interim the ID holder is exposed to abuse.
If the devil is in the details, then what information basically will the ID contain? How about the photo?
Very often our police/law enforcement agencies find it impossible to catch "Wanted Persons" when their pictures go with the published notices. Now, when the PNP or NBI draw cartographic sketches of the suspects' faces most often, because they nearly resemble the police probers/lawmen near them, they get caught.
Assuming the nation accepts the concept of the ID card, government must enlighten our people on the following: its validity (years) of effectivity; penalties for non-compliance; its official uses aside from identifying the person; replacement in case of loss.
I am sure our kin from the rebel groups will find it convenient to get one card in his true name in his own province, and another ID card in another location where he is assigned under an alias. This will insure unhampered mobility. Checking and cross-checking the IDs will take time, specially at the AFP where the simple chore of verifying the service record of Gen. Carlos Garcia or the act of validating a genuine or fake Statements of Assets and Liabilities is a wait till kingdom come.
If our probers could not ascertain the actual identities of Messrs. Jose Velarde and Jose Pidal, how is it easily possible to know the thousands of wanted persons or terrorists in our midst?
I can only suggest the feasibility of identifying the native place of the ID card holder by color-coding. Red from Mindanao; blue for Visayas, and yellow for Luzon.
(March 2, 2005 issue)
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