DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 3 December) – The local government is finalizing the Safe Davao QR (DQR) system for its full implementation as one of the measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
During a live interview over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Thursday, Lemuel Ortonio, Human Resource Management Office Lemuel Ortonio chief at City Hall said the service provider was already in the final stretch of developing the DQR.
Registration for establishments to secure a SafeDavao QR code resumed Wednesday, November 11. using a new link. The date for resumption of registration for individuals has yet to be announced.
Ortonio, who leads the implementation of the DQR system, made the announcement more than a month after the system was rolled out last October 31.
“We are just waiting for the ‘public link of the establishments’ to be properly set up. So, our establishments and public will need to wait for the full implementation, but we are already nearing, as per checking with the development, nearing in terms of finalizing it,” he added.
He said the public can expect a formal announcement from the local government on the start of the DQR system in the coming days.
Mayor Sara Duterte moved the full implementation of the DQR system from Nov. 7 to Nov. 23 after the registration website crashed due to high traffic days after its launch.
But the supposed mandatory enforcement had been cancelled as several offices and business establishments here did not have scanners for the DQR system.
“We will hold the mandatory implementation of the DQR because not all establishments, as of today, can scan. So, only those with Android phones, internet connection, and offices and establishments in the list can start. But if you are ‘Android’ but have no internet connection, you cannot start yet,” she said at the time.
Issued on Nov. 3, Executive Order No. 60 provides that the DQR will be used as as a pass for entry into and travel inside the city for the purpose of delivering goods and accessing essential services, or work- and business-related transactions.
It also serves as a pass to be shown at law enforcement checkpoints and to barangay patrols implementing the prohibition on non-essential travel, and as a contact-tracing log on non-essential travel.
The EO says all individuals, including non-residents of the city, will be required to get a one-time, permanent and unique DQR code upon successful online registration, citing the need to “limit the movement of people in Davao City to accessing essential goods and services or for work/business only, in keeping with the purpose of a community quarantine.”
“There is a need to institutionalize the Safe Davao QR (DQR) to implement contactless data gathering and electronic storage of data,” it said.
Ortonio said the system has been implemented in phases since Nov. 23, starting off with gradual implementation of the DQR scanning at select establishments such as main entrances and exits of malls, city government buildings and offices, national government agencies, boundary checkpoints of Task Force Davao, hospitals, banks, public markets and police checkpoints.
“Only few (establishments) were informed that they could start with DQR as compared to the number of registered establishments. However, we’ve gotten very good feedback that the system was organized, scanning was quick and not difficult to operate,” he said.
Only allowed establishments are currently permitted to scan the DQR codes of individuals, he said.
But the local government will soon allow individuals to scan the DQR codes of the establishments for contact-tracing to lessen the long queues outside the establishments, he added. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
