DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 June) – The unified identification card (ID) and automated teller machine (ATM) card, a project initiated by the Davao City local government unit, maybe available for Dabawenyos “within the year.”
The unified “Dabawenyo card” is still being developed by the City Information and Technology Center (CITC), Councilor Bonz Andre Militar, chair of the Committee on Information Technology, said during the Aprubado sa Konseho press conference at the Sangguniang Panlungsod here Tuesday morning.
The CITC, which is under the City Administrator’s Office, targets to have the implementation of the unified card system in the next two months, Militar said.
He said the committee will invite the CITC in the next hearing on Thursday, June 20, to follow-up on the status of the project.
For this year, the CITC has a budget allocation of P42,287,247.
The Dabawenyo card, according to the local government’s Human Resource and Management Office, can be used to avail government services such as calamity financial assistance, emergency cash assistance, senior citizen benefits, and universal health care program benefits.
Militar said that Dabawenyos can apply for the unified card online.
He noted the card system is one of the priority projects of Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte.
“If wala pa silang card, they can still apply for assistance using previous processes, but I think next year, every Dabawenyo must have a Dabawenyo card,” the city councilor said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in July 2020, a memorandum from former city administrator Zuleika Lopez advised all officials and employees to go through the Dabawenyo card’s registration process to capture their location or home residence for geotagging.
This time, the application process will be opened to all local Dabawenyos and not just the city government employees.
In an interview last year, CITC officer-in-charge Nephtaly Talavera said that the Dabawenyo card aims to also serve as a centralized identification card to be used primarily to speed up business transactions, such as securing permits in the city and availing aid and other city government “pahalipays”, exclusive for Dabawenyo citizens.
Talavera said they also plan to make this card as a financial ID as well, such as to pay fares for the high-priority bus system project in the near future. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)