H3: Contractor's service continues on 'goodwill': Uy

MANILA (UPDATE) — The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday said the software for the country's digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate VaxCertPH expired in September and that the agency was "fixing" budget issues to keep it running.

"Ang software that we are using, contracted with the provider, third party provider, technically nag-expire ng Sept. 30," Uy told Palace reporters when asked about reports that some people had difficulty updating their digital vaccination proof.

(The software that we are using, contracted with the provider, third party provider, technically expired last Sept. 30.)

• ALAMIN: Mga pagbabagong gagawin sa VaxcertPH

Despite the expiration of the software provider's contract, it was "continuing the service," Uy said.

"[This is out of] goodwill on their part as we realign our budget to answer for this," the official said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.

The renewal of the software contract is an "unprogrammed expense" on the part of the DICT because the VaxCertPH system was supposed to be turned over to the Department of Health, Uy said.

However, he said the DOH only "recently" said its personnel were not yet ready to manage the system and asked the DICT to keep overseeing it.

"We asked them, 'OK we will continue running it, but we need to renew yung kontrata dahil Sept. 30 nag-expire noon.' At tinanong namin ang DOH, 'May budget ba kayo so we could continue with the contract?' Sabi nila wala, so now pinasa ulit sa DICT," he added.

(We asked them, 'OK we will continue running it, but we need to renew the contract because it expired on Sept. 30.' And we asked the DOH, 'Do you have the budget so we could continue with the contract. They said they did not, so it was passed back to the DICT.)

"We are in the process of renewing that, and medyo humagilap ho kami ng pondo. It's an unprogrammed expense that DICT has to assume in order to keep that running. We're still in that stage kaya medyo may kaunting challenge d'yan but we're fixing that."

(We scrambled a bit for funds... We're still in that stage so there is a bit of challenge there.)

• Why Filipinos need to update their COVID-19 vaccination certificate

ABS-CBN News reached out to the DOH to comment on the matter, but it has yet to reply as of this posting.

The DICT developed VaxCertPH in coordination with the health department. VaxCertPH was also released as a mobile app.

Filipinos traveling abroad rely on VaxCertPH, which is accepted internationally as a proof of vaccination. They may also request an International Certificate of Vaccination or “yellow card” from the Philippine Bureau of Quarantine, which charges processing fees.

• Traveling abroad after the lockdown? Here’s how to get an International Vaccine Certificate

Watch more News on iWantTFC