San Carlos City’s entry to the Digital Governance Awards (DGA) 2021, which is a Viral Assessment and Monitoring System (VAMOS) software application, won the 3rd place during its virtual awarding rites Friday, October 29.
The DGA 2021 is a joint program of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) aimed at recognizing the best practices of municipalities, cities and provinces in their development and solutions in the field of Information and Communications Technology including efficiency, innovation, and business and citizen governance.
City Mayor Renato Gustilo along with the staff of the Information Technology and Computer Systems Office (ITCSO) who were behind the creation of VAMOS app were very happy and proud with the achieved national award, a post on the San Carlos Facebook page said.
Gustilo thanked the DGA committee for recognizing the city’s endeavor in producing a very useful software application that serves the city government and its people not only during this COVID-19 pandemic but for years to come. He also dedicated the award to the hard-working people behind the VAMOS app creation, he said.
ITCSO Information Technology Officer Joseph Alan Binghay said that the one thing that made the VAMOS app unique is not just its ability to expedite the contact tracing of COVID-19 positive cases and its linkage with the Vaccination/Resbakuna program of the government but its human resource engagement – providing employment to Tech4ED scholars of the city as digital workers.
Felix Michael Oberes, ITCSO Information Systems Analyst, said that the progress of the VAMOS app was due to the tenacious efforts of the ITCSO programmers who made it even better as the app is now a channel for more service features such as news announcements, emergency response, law enforcement, utility bills and payments, business permits and taxes, e-tickets, document tracking, events and reservations, tourism and marketing among others.
Other than Gustilo, Binghay and Oberes, present during the online awarding were the people who presented the winning entry to the panel of judges on October 14, including City Administrator Estefanio Libutan Jr., SP Secretary Ma. Cecilia Suzette Binghay, CDRRM Officer Joe Recalex Alingasa Jr and his staff Lee Roble, Tyron James Marabillo, Jhong Tayo and Johannes Franz P. Curativo.
The VAMOS app with its Quick Response (QR) code and numerous self-sustaining features that are user-friendly, economically feasible, and upgradable was formally launched Fridau at the opening of the 2021Pintaflores Festival as the Official Community App of San Carlos City called VAMOS CARES app.
Other winners in this year’s 2021 DGA in the same category with the said app include Cebu City as 2nd and Baguio City as 1st Placer.*