BAGUIO CITY -- More than 58,000 residents have enrolled in the Baguio In My Pocket (BIMP) free smart phone application as the city government doubled down on its registration and information campaigns aimed at enrolling every resident in the coming months.
City Mayor’s Office Chief of Staff Philip Puzon said the city has already acquired the assistance of health workers, nutrition actions officers and scholars of the barangays to assist in the endeavor.
Help will also be sought from barangay officials to speed-up the registration process, he added.
BIMP is a collection of applications aimed at promoting an e-government ecosystem to include cashless payment transactions, citizen data management, contact tracing and other essential services for local residents.
Puzon said the app could also be used as a vaccination database where information gathered from residents will help refine the selection for the vaccine roll out and ease the process of vaccination.
Currently, it is being used for business and real property tax assessments with its QR (Quick Reference) code features for entry protection and access to City Hall.
Other benefits include a document folder, an entertainment portal and an e-Government transaction portal that serves as a one stop shop for government transactions.
Mark Allan Santos, senior solutions architect of US-based Oracle Corporation, said his company’s technology is being used by the largest government and banking institutions in the world, including the Philippines.
Santos assured registrants that data stored in its “cloud” from information gathered by Baguio In My Pocket (BIMP) application were completely safe and secure.
“Oracle has the best technological database platform in the world.”
Santos said Oracle believes in “prevention is better than cure” that is why its security and compliance system is composed of five layers: User authentication, network security, web security, server security, and database security.
The BIMP app provides a contact-less access to a wide array of services of the government like a 911 emergency system, an online marketplace, and a market to home delivery system.
Another feature, a “Know-Your-Citizen module”, will allow barangays to identify and analyze the needs of their residents in order that they may be served more effectively by local government.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong said the development and implementation of Baguio in My Pocket is based on, and aligned with existing laws in the country.
Magalong said, as Baguio City aims for transformation through e-governance, technology shall be maximized to simplify processes and transactions, not only during the pandemic, but towards the new normal
“Let us not be afraid to embrace this technology since it will be of great help to us in our ‘new normal’ way of living,” he said.