The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is set to re-implement a smart chip-based renewal ID card that would be followed by a self-service certificate renewal kiosk.

The NBI will outsource the distribution of the smartcards and the building of the automated kiosks to Mega Data Corporation. They hope to finish the project in 2008.

Mega Data Chairman Raffy Garcia told INQUIRER.NET that the company is currently distributing the smartcards through the main NBI headquarters in Manila but it will eventually distribute the cards through other NBI offices.

Garcia said the cards will only be used for NBI clearance renewal, which is done on a yearly basis. These will not contain any personal data of the citizen but only the civil records.

The 120-peso smartcards are optional for applicants but is more convenient because a user would not have to wait for his or her records to be cross-checked at the NBI database. The card itself would be updated when citizen records arrive at the NBI database.

The NBI had already started the smartcard distribution as early as two years ago but temporarily stopped due to some questions to its viability as well as too few applicants for the card.

Garcia noted that they would start building the self-service renewal kiosks, hopefully by next year or when there are enough smartcards. ?We are hoping to build around 70 self-service kiosks.?

The kiosks would operate like banking automated teller machines (ATM) where users only need to enter their cards, pay for the amount and have a printed copy of their NBI certificates.

The NBI already has 12 satellite offices and 12 manned renewal kiosks nationwide but Garcia said that they would be shutting down some of the manned renewal kiosks once the automated kiosks are operational.