Confiscated QR passes in Cebu City for June 1, 2020. | Photo courtesy of Arnel Samson
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City government has reserved 10,000 QR coded passes in case of emergencies, which have not been distributed to the barangays.
According to City Administrator Floro Casas Jr., there were 170,000 QR coded passes that were distributed to the 80 barangays, but they kept 10,000 for emergencies as these would be distributed to sitios or households that would really need the passes.
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The distribution of these reserved passes will no longer be coursed through the barangay, but these will be directly given to the recipient from the city government.
Councilor Franklyn Ong, the president of the Association of the Barangay Councils (ABC), has questioned why only 170,000 passes were distributed to the barangays when the city promised 178,000.
Casas said the 8,000 from the 178,000 were now part of the 10,000 reserved passes for emergencies.
“Ato lang ning gipangreserve in case of emergencies nga kinahanglan gyod ang certain sitio naay mga passes, and for households nga kailangan kaayo niini. Wala ni gitago ang 10,000 passes, gireserve ni,” said Casas.
(We reserved the passes for emergencies when the passes will be needed by certain sitio and for households who will really need them. We are not hiding the passes. We reserved them.)
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The city administrator said that they understood that the system was not perfect, so they had to keep extra passes just in case.
Casas said he hoped the city constituents would understand that the main purpose of the passes was to limit the movement of people, that was why the city released only a few.
He clarified that they used the 2016 database of the Department of Health (DOH) stating there were 178,000 households, instead of the 2015 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority of 213,000, because the DOH’s data was more recent and also contained the names of the household heads.
“When it comes to the numbers, of course, we will lean towards the lesser number because that will limit the movement more,” he added.
As of now, the city is assessing areas that may receive additional passes. Casas, however, did not reveal their basis for a sitio, household, or area to receive additional passes.
Read more: QR passes for residential complexes can be shared, says Cebu City ABC prexy
He urged the public to make do with the available passes especially that residential complexes had been allowed to share them.
He also urged the public to stay at home and to only go out when they would need to buy necessities. /dbs