Gerry Albert Corpuz presents

This is Gerry Albert Corpuz and this is my life and political journey to the world of class struggle and class emancipation

Bunye, the American civil liberties union and Japanese experience on national ID system

Sec. Bunye scored for saying that people who keep

mistresses are only those afraid of National ID system

“ Stupid argument to market a silly proposal” - Pamalakaya



Critics of the newly revived National ID system on Monday berated Palace spokesperson and Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye over his argument that those who are afraid of the national ID system are people who are afraid to have their mistresses exposed to the public.



“ It is a stupid argument to market a silly and damn proposal. We will not go down to Sec. Bunye’s gutter-level politics. It is an insult to the collective intelligence of the Filipino people”, said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.



President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s press secretary said it was unlikely that the national ID system would disclose a person’s amorous relationships, adding that those who do not want an ID system are those people with a love of wives and “ other relatives”.



Later, Bunye said he meant this as a joke, adding that ID system’s main aim was to expose individuals with multiple addresses or those with something to hide. The National ID system that Malacañang wants to implement will require basic information such as the name of one’s spouse or date of birth that is already disclosed in an individual’s social security ID or driver’s license.



But Pamalakaya’s Hicap will not take Bunye’s retraction at face value. “ In an attempt to sell an unmarketable proposal and detestable idea, Sec. Bunye this time appealed to the emotion of public morals to generate support for this satanic, militaristic and diabolical national ID system “, Hicap said.



“ We have many government and private ID’s which contained the same basic information, so why push for the national ID system. The hell bent, non-stop crusade displayed by Malacañang to execute the national ID system reveals the ruling Macapagal-Arroyo circle’s real motive and that is to place the entire 84 million population to the spy web inside Palace war room”, Hicap added.



As for his part, Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz said the national ID system which is going be implemented by Metro Manila mayors and local government units in the provinces could be challenged in regional trial courts by civil liberties organizations and human rights groups.



“ In defense of the people’s civil liberties and human rights, we ask civil libertarians and human rights groups to challenge the implementation of the national ID system at the local level. We can use the Supreme Court ruling on the unconstitutionality of the proposed ID system to knock down the ID system”, Corpuz added.



Corpuz said the proposal for a national ID system was first proposed during the tenure of former dictator President Ferdinand Marcos. The Martial Law regime failed to pass the measure because of the strong resistance against the dictatorship and martial rule.



He said in 1998, the Supreme Court saw the clear and present danger of the national ID system, which the high tribunal viewed as a direct invasion of one’s privacy and could be used to incriminate a person by abusive, incompetent and corrupt government authorities.



Corpuz said the national ID system that was being proposed by Malacañang was a poor copy of the national ID system which the governments of the United States, Japan, Canada. United Kingdom and Germany wanted to push but rejected by citizens of said first world countries. #





SOME NOTES ON THE NATIONAL ID SYSTEM ABROAD



Americans have consistently rejected the idea of a national ID card. In 1971 the Social Security Administration task force on the SSN rejected the extension of the Social Security Number to the status of an ID card. In



1973, the Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) Secretary's Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems concluded that a national identifier was not desirable. In 1976, the Federal Advisory Committee on False Identification rejected the idea of an identifier. In 1977, the Carter Administration reiterated that the SSN was not to become an identifier, and in 1981 the Reagan Administration stated that it was "explicitly opposed" to the creation of a national ID card.



Throughout the debates over health care reform, the Clinton Administration also constantly stressed that it was opposed to a national identifier. In 1999 Congress repealed a controversial provision in the llegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 which gave authorization to include Social Security Numbers on drivers' licenses.



In response to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, there has been renewed interest in the creation of national ID cards. Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corporation, the California based software company, has called for the development of a national identification system and offered to donate the technology to make this possible.



He proposed ID cards with embedded digitized thumbprints and photographs of all legal residents in the U.S. UK Home Secretary David Blunkett is also considering proposals for a national ID card. So far, however, no such measures have been proposed in Congress and the White House is reportedly "not even considering the idea".



National ID Cards: 5 Reasons Why They Should Be Rejected by the American Civil Liberties Union



The terrorist attacks of September 11 have revived proposals for a national identity card system as a way to verify the identity of airline passengers and prevent terrorists from entering the country. For example, the Chairman and CEO of Oracle Corp., Larry Ellison,recently called for the creation of a national ID system and offered to provide the software for it without charge.



The newest calls for a national ID are only the latest in a long series of proposals that have cropped up repeatedly over the past decade, usually in the context of immigration policy, but also in connection with gun control or health care reform. But the creation of a national I.D. card remains a misplaced, superficial "quick fix." It offers only a false sense of security and will not enhance our security – but will pose serious threats to our civil liberties and civil rights. A National ID will not keep us safe or free.



Reason #1: A national ID card system would not solve the problem that is inspiring it.



A national ID card system will not prevent terrorism. It would not have thwarted the September 11 hijackers, for example, many of whom reportedly had identification documents on them, and were in the country legally.



Terrorists and criminals will continue to be able to obtain -- by legal and illegal means -- the documents needed to get a government ID, such as birth certificates. Yes, these new documents will have data like digital fingerprints on them, but that won’t prove real identity – just that the carrier has obtained what could easily be a fraudulent document.



And their creation would not justify the cost to American taxpayers, which according to the Social Security Administration would be at least $4 billion.It is an impractical and ineffective proposal – a simplistic and naïve attempt to use gee-whiz technology to solve complex social and economic problems.





Reason #2: An ID card system will lead to a slippery slope of surveillance and monitoring of citizens.



A national ID card system would not protect us from terrorism, but it would create a system of internal passports that would significantly diminish the freedom and privacy of law-abiding citizens.Once put in place, it is exceedingly unlikely that such a system would be restricted to its original purpose. The original Social Security Act contained strict prohibitions against use of Social Security cards for unrelated purposes, but those strictures have been routinely ignored and steadily abandoned over the past 50 years.A national ID system would threaten the privacy that Americans have always enjoyed and gradually increase the control that government and business wields over everyday citizens.



Reason #3: A national ID card system would require creation of a database of all Americans

What happens when an ID card is stolen? What proof is used to decide who gets a card? A national ID would require a governmental database of every person in the U.S. containing continually updated identifying information.



It would likely contain many errors, any one of which could render someone unemployable and possibly much worse until they get their “file” straightened out.And once that database was created, its use would almost certainly expand. Law enforcement and other government agencies would soon ask to link into it, while employers, landlords, credit agencies, mortgage brokers, direct mailers, landlords, private investigators, civil litigants, and a long list of other parties would begin seeking access, further eroding the privacy that Americans have always expected in their personal lives.



Reason #4: ID cards would function as “internal passports” that monitor citizens’ movements

Americans have long had a visceral aversion to building a society in which the authorities could act like totalitarian sentries and demand “your papers please!”



And that everyday intrusiveness would be conjoined with the full power of modern computer and database technology. When a police officer or security guard scans your ID card with his pocket bar-code reader, for example, will a permanent record be created of that check, including the time and your location?



How long before office buildings, doctors’ offices, gas stations, highway tolls, subways and buses incorporate the ID card into their security or payment systems for greater efficiency? The end result could be a nation where citizens’ movements inside their own country are monitored and recorded through these “internal passports.”



Reason #5: ID cards would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment

Rather than eliminating discrimination, as some have claimed, a national identity card would foster new forms of discrimination and harassment of

anyone perceived as looking or sounding "foreign."



That is what happened after Congress passed the Employer Sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1985: widespread discrimination against foreign-looking American workers, especially Asians and Hispanics. A 1990 General

Accounting Office study found almost 20 percent of employers engaged in such practices.



A national ID card would have the same effect on a massive scale, as Latinos, Asians, Caribbeans and other minorities became subject to ceaseless status and identity checks from police, banks, merchants and others. Failure to carry a national I.D. card would likely come to be viewed as a reason for search, detention or arrest of minorities. The stigma and humiliation of constantly having to prove that they are Americans or legal immigrants would weigh heavily on such groups.



Japan launched a compulsory ID system on Monday in the face of stiff protests calling it a violation of privacy and a temptation to hackers.



A group of academics and activists presented the Home Affairs Ministry with a petition demanding the government halt the program, which links municipal computer systems and gives each Japanese citizen an 11-digit identification number.



The group filed a court case at the end of last month, demanding the system be abolished because it is unconstitutional.



"We don't want to be under government surveillance. Stop the resident registry system,'' shouted a small band of protesters outside the ministry.

With one dressed up to look like a computer and another as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the demonstrators danced and put on a short sketch to illustrate their objections to the system.



The new database stores personal data--names, addresses, dates of birth, gender and the new ID numbers--for each of Japan's 126 million citizens, making it easier for them to obtain documents for a variety of public services and benefits.



But at least five cities are refusing to join the system, while Mayor Hiroshi Nakada of Yokohama, Japan's second-largest city, said Friday that residents will be allowed to choose whether to take part.



About 4 million of Japan's 127 million people live in cities that are refusing to introduce the system, according to media reports.

Opponents fear that something sinister is at work and that the new system gives authorities a tool to harass and silence critics.



"This system treats individuals as things, not people,'' Hirohisa Kitano, a legal expert and professor emeritus of Nihon University, said at a news conference.



Critics say the ID number could act as a key to an array of personal data stored at different locations, making it easier for hackers to create mischief.



The government says it has created a security system that can detect suspicious access to the database, but several cities have reported computer glitches.



"It's quite common to feel uneasy about something new. We want to keep explaining until such anxieties disappear," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.



The United States has been debating for some time whether to implement a national identification system

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