DICT defers to IATF on selection of StaySafe.ph as sole contact tracing app

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Thursday said it will defer to the guidance of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) on the selection of the Philippines' contact tracing application.

Responding to safety and compatibility concerns of StaySafe.ph which was selected as the sole contact tracing application of the country, the DICT said it will be up to the IATF.

"Sa ngayon po, pinag-aaralan pa po 'yun for the app po. I believe it was sa IATF po 'yun, it was a collaborative effort of all agencies, so we have to defer to their guidance and directive," DICT spokesperson Adrian Echaus said during the Laging Handa public briefing.

"On our part, I believe may part na dumaan sa cybersecurity bureau namin 'yun, tapos pinag-aaralan 'yan, so we're just deferring to anong sasabihin ng IATF," he added.

Over the weekend, former DICT Undersecretary Eliseo Rio, Jr. said he was "eased out" of his position after raising concerns on StaySafe.ph.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Rio said StaySafe.ph was selected as the sole contact tracing application to monitor the spread of the coronavirus, even with compatibility and privacy issues.

In a separate post on Wednesday, Rio then said his recommendations to have a central platform was ignored by the IATF, which instead adopted an ecosystem with StaySafe.ph as the only contact tracing application.

StaySafe.ph was developed by Multisys Technologies Corporation, led by chief executive officer David Almirol, Jr.

"Users will not only be safer with StaySafe.ph’s social distancing system, it will also equip our authorities with such functional analytics like the contact tracing and heatmap that will enable them to allocate, channel, and deploy necessary resources to the right communities," Almirol said in an earlier statement.—AOL, GMA News