DICT vows to revive VaxCertPH, free Wi-Fi

MANILA, Philippines — The contracts for VaxCertPH and the free WiFi project may have expired, but the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has vowed to look for ways to revive the two programs started by the previous administration.

The contract with the third-party software provider of VaxCertPH expired last Sept. 30, according to DICT Secretary Ivan Uy.

VaxCertPH was launched last year to produce uniform certificates that indicate a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status.

Uy said that before the expiration of the contract, the DICT talked to the Department of Health (DOH) for the turnover of VaxCertPH.

He added that DOH officer-in-charge Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire informed the DICT that its personnel are not yet ready to accept and run the system.

“(The DOH) requested the DICT to continue running the system for them in the meantime, until they have the capacity to absorb the system. Then, we asked them, OK, so we will continue running it, but we need to renew the contract because it expired on Sept. 30,” Uy said at a press briefing yesterday.

The DICT chief disclosed that his agency had asked the DOH whether the latter has the budget to continue the contract.

“They said they have none, so it was passed again to the DICT, but the renewal was not programmed in our budget because we were expecting that by Sept. 30, we would turn it over already to the DOH and they will assume the full operation and responsibility and the funding for that,” he said.

The DICT is now looking for funds to renew the contract, according to Uy.

“It’s an unprogrammed expense that the DICT has to assume ... to keep (VaxCertPH) running. So we’re still in that stage, so there is a challenge, but we’re fixing that,” he said.

There have been complaints over difficulties obtaining an updated COVID-19 vaccine certificate, one of the requirements for overseas travel. – Rhodina Villanueva