A resident of Tabaco City, Albay, inquires about the GCash application during a Philippine Statistics Authority PhilSys-on-Wheels and GCash KYC on-the-go initiatives, conducted Aug. 17 to 19, 2026. Residents registered for the national ID and completed verification for their GCash digital wallets. (Contributed photo)
LEGAZPI CITY – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and virtual wallet GCash brought financial and registration services directly to residents of Barangay Tagas in Tabaco City, Albay, under the “PSA PhilSys-on-Wheels” and “GCash KYC On-the-Go” from Aug. 17 to 19.
The joint service hub offered a one-stop setup for Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) national ID registration and complete verification of GCash accounts for a wider scope of services, according to a news release on Friday.
Informal economy workers and rural residents, including local farmers, market vendors, and tricycle drivers, frequently struggle to access formal financial services due to stringent documentary requirements.
Using the PSA eVerify, identity authentication that normally takes several days are completed minutes.
The rollout aligned with a recent directive from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas requiring all e-wallets and digital banking institutions to link with the PSA National ID system, a security standard GCash pioneered in 2024.
The automated verification helps curb identity theft while removing the need to present multiple physical IDs for simple financial transactions.
By bringing services directly to the people, even low-income household members and residents in remote areas now have access to essential financial tools, including digital payments, savings, microloans and insurance.
Representatives from GCash also conducted financial literacy sessions.
From January to June, PSA-Bicol registered 257,122 under the National ID System, surpassing the 252,885 registrations recorded for the entire 2025.
In July this year, the region reached 305,136 registrations, bringing the cumulative number of registered Filipinos in Bicol to 5,596,632, or 92.23 percent of the region’s total population.
“The accomplishments of the first half of 2026 demonstrate the value of inter-agency collaboration in making government services more accessible to every Filipino. By integrating National ID services into social protection and health initiatives, we are not only increasing registrations but also ensuring that beneficiaries are equipped with trusted proof of identity that enables them to access essential services,” PSA-Bicol Regional Director Cynthia Perdiz said in a statement. (PNA)