CONTROVERSIAL contact-tracing app StaySafe.ph is being encouraged for use by commercial establishments, as government agencies started promoting the Safety Seal Certification Program.
Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año described the app “a work in progress,” since the app was developed a year ago, as Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc on the lives of many Filipinos. As of April 24, close to 1 million have been infected by Covid, 16,700 of whom have died, while there were 9,661 new cases recorded, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
“The most important thing is the integration of the CDRS (Corporate Data Repository System) from the DOH in real time, where results of our ongoing testing is deposited there. This data can be used for real-time contact tracing,” said Año in Taglish during Friday’s virtual presser for the Safety Seal Certification Program.
“Somehow we must agree there must be one system that you will have to work and put it as the center of our contact-tracing system, otherwise if we use our respective apps, all the more we won’t be able to integrate [our] data. It’s a work in progress, but seriously, we are now focusing our attention on it and we will make this work,” he added.
According to Año, there are “many who have registered to StaySafe. There are 1.6 million StaySafe users that have generated codes, for QR scanning about 9.2 million, and for mobile app and web, there are 3.2 million StaySafe users. So being the officially adopted contract-tracing digital app, we have to support this . . . Many LGUs (local government units) are amenable to using [this].”
He said the Department of Information and Communications (DICT) will work on integrating the various apps used to StaySafe.
‘For surveillance purposes’
The Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) adopted StaySafe as the country’s “official social-distancing, health-condition reporting, and contract-tracing that will assist in the government’s response to Covid-19,” on April 22, 2020 (IATF Resolution No. 27). However, former DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio said in a Facebook post last June, the app fails in contact-tracing as “it just generates a database of cellphone numbers with their location, useful for surveillance purposes of people who reported themselves with symptoms, but of little value to people who report themselves as healthy.” He added he was “eased out” of his job after questioning the reliability of the app.
Since then, several government sources have confirmed Rio’s observations, with many of them, only last month, raising concerns on adopting the app, developed by Multisys Technologies Corp. Over a year however, apparently none of the government agencies had wanted to accept the “donation” by Multisys; even the Department of Transportation and Communication developed Trazer, its own contact-tracing app.
“First of all, if you’re sick with Covid, will you report it via the app?” said another government source.
One source told the BusinessMirror, “LGUs don’t even use it, because they already have their own apps,” like Pasig, Makati, and Mandaluyong, “which are more efficient in contact-tracing,” added another. “Now they want these LGUs apps to integrate with StaySafe.”
Safety Seal program
Cabinet secretaries from the Departments of Trade and Industry, Tourism, Labor and Employment, Health, and Interior and Local Government signed a joint memorandum circular on April 23, which contains the requirements and procedures in securing a Safety Seal, and institutionalizes the certification program. The circular also covers the eligibility and certification process, as well as complaints handling and renewal/revocation/reinstatement guidelines.
According to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, “Through the Safety Seal certification, the government aims to increase public confidence in businesses at this time of the pandemic …. The signage of the Safety Seal, which affirms that an establishment has been found compliant with these health protocols, will assure customers that it is safe to be in that establishment. Likewise it indicates that the establishment is using the digital contact-tracing application to strengthen the contact tracing initiative of government, now led by DILG to effectively contain the spread of Covid-19.”
He underscored, however, that the Safety Seal certification “is voluntary.”
For her part, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said the DOT is focusing its efforts on the agency’s accredited primary tourism enterprises, which include accommodation establishments; travel and tour services; Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions venues/facilities; and restaurants inside hotels/resorts.
For applicants, the DOT will create a microsite that will include the program’s implementing guidelines, checklist of covered establishments, contact details of inspection units, downloadable safety seal took kit, list of establishments issued the Safety Seal, complaint hotlines, request for reassessment or reinstatement. The seal is valid for one year and can be revoked if the establishment has violations.
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