TACLOBAN CITY – A “Libre Sakay” (free ride) app was launched on Monday, March 4, in Borongan City, Eastern Samar in line with the city government's smart city initiative.
The app was launched alongside the unveiling of the Smart Technologies Innovation Center at the Eastern Samar State University in Borongan City.
The app aims to augment the operations of the city’s Libre Sakay program where recipients of the free transport service are given easy access to the transport system with its QR-generated IDs and bus tracking features, among others.
In a demonstration, the app showed two of the Libre Sakay buses, 50-seat and brand-new, transporting the first batch of Libre Sakay students from the city proper to ESSU.
TWO 50-seat, brand-new buses were deployed by the city government of Borongan for the 'Libre Sakay' (free ride) program. (Borongan City PIO FB)
Libre Sakay bus stops were identified on the way as the vehicles picked up each student passenger.
Borongan Mayor Jose Ivan Dayan Agda stressed the significance of the city’s collaboration with ESSU and the Department of Science and Technology in its bid toward digitalization.
“The cooperation and collaboration with our national agency and the academe produce good results. I know that the think-tank of our city will be the state university,” Agda said.
Melvin Sacmar of DOST-Eastern Visayas said that Smart City Borongan is a long-term program that aims to create innovative avenues for the delivery of the local government unit’s basic services.
He added that aside from the Libre Sakay application, a Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) will also be launched by the city government for the efficient recording of its employees’ profiles.
Borongan the first implementer of the Smart City initiative in Eastern Visayas.