PhlPost shifts to plastic ID cards

MANILA, Philippines - Postal identification cards will soon be made of plastic to make them more resistant to forgery and tampering, the Philippine Postal Corp. (PhlPost) said yesterday.

PhlPost marketing management and support services manager Enrique Tagle said that in three months, they hope to roll out their first plastic postal cards.

Yesterday, Postmaster General Josefina dela Cruz signed a joint venture with Filmetrics Corp. to manufacture the cards.

The postal identification card would carry biometric data that includes the digital photograph of the cardholder, Tagle said.

He said the some institutions have refused to honor the PhlPost paper identification cards since they are prone to being duplicated or tampered.

The plastic postal identification card would be pilot-tested in selected post offices.

The PhlPost board has yet to decide how much to charge for a plastic postal identification card. The current price of a paper card is P300 for regular processing and P400 for rush or one-day processing.