AUTHORITIES in Bacolod City are now conducting an investigation on the reported selling of BaCTrac keychains in the Negros Occidental capital city, an official of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Task Force said.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, EOC Task Force’s deputy for medical and data analysis, said they already received reports on the alleged selling of BaCTrac keychains which has been circulating online.
Sorongon said they are investigating if the BaCTrac IDs being converted to keychains or key holders are legit. If so, this is an innovative, creative and more convenient way of using the city’s contact tracing system.
“If the data in the BaCTrac IDs are false information, then that’s something [different],” he said, adding that it was already referred to the City Legal Office and Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) and they are investigating the matter.
The use of BaCTrac is provided under City Ordinance 941 or the “Covid-19 Contact Tracing System Ordinance of Bacolod City.”
The Bacolod City Covid-19 Tracing System or BaCTrac is a web-based and mobile-based app developed for efficient and expeditious contact tracing of confirmed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive patients in the city and allow the EOC Task Force to easily locate people suspected of having contact with Covid-19 patients.
Photos of sample BaCTrac keychains being sold at P65 per piece were posted on social media, including Facebook.
The EOC official said he does not see any problem if one will share the soft copy of his BaCTrac ID, especially the quick response (QR) code and photo of the owner, to makers of keychains as long as this is legit and intended only for a certain person’s use.
“It’s like an internet cafe that prints documents, that’s enterprising. What is important, the one they are printing is legit,” Sorongon said, stressing that one person’s data cannot be reproduced into multiple copies for multiple uses.
“That’s a violation, that’s illegal, thus, we need to investigate that,” he said.
Reports on the selling of BaCTrac keychains in Bacolod City have also reached the office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Negros Occidental.
Engiemar Tupas, officer-in-charge chief of Industry Development Division of DTI-Negros Occidental, said if such entrepreneurial or enterprising opportunity has not violated any laws then there is nothing wrong with it.
Tupas, however, said if these keychains contain personal information used without the consent of the owners, then it’s a different story.
“If that’s the case, one may file a complaint about violation of the Data Privacy Act,” he said, adding that consumers should improvise on their own rather than sharing their data to anyone, especially to those they are only transacting online.
The DTI official expressed apprehension over sharing of personal information, including those included in the BaCTrac identification cards.
Tupas said “it is dangerous” as these data may be used for other purposes, including those illegal ones.
"Scams and other modus have been rampant nowadays," he said.
Tupas said this is aside from the fact that the use of these BaCTrac keychains may be abused thereby losing the authenticity of the data for possible contact tracing, asking, “what if they will sell these BaCTrac keychains with wrong information?"
Meanwhile, Sorongon said over 8,000 business establishments in the city have already registered in the BaCTrac System based on the latest data of the EOC Task Force.
Sorongon said the Management Information Technology and Computer Services (MITCS) is currently determining which of the following are active and inactive.
“There are 90 new DILG contact tracers deployed in addition to our contact tracing team so some of them will be deployed to check the BaCTrac compliance,” he said, adding that so we are expecting that system compliance will really be reviewed this month.
If there are violations, the city government will issue citation tickets so establishments should follow and implement the BaCTrac System.
Under the ordinance, penalties ranging from P1,000, P2,500 and P5,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than six months for the first, second, third and succeeding offenses, respectively, await private establishments and government offices that fail to comply.