PCOO Launches ‘DU30 Mobile App’

A new media platfrom that will serve as Filipinos’ link, here or abroad, for updates on the plans and programs of the Duterte administration was formally launched Tuesday.

The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) led the launch at the second day of the National Information Convention (NIC) at SMX Convention Center in Davao City of President DU30 mobile application as the newest media platform to link government to Filipino communities worldwide.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the DU30 App is the Filipinos’ link for updates on government plans, activities, and speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte via the RTVM, Radyo Pilipinas, and the PCOO’s DU30 on Duty.

The mobile application is one of the initiatives of the PCOO, believing that mobile technology is one of the best ways to fight disinformation, misinformation, and fake news.

With the growing number of active mobile users and with fact-based technology, Andanar said the PCOO continues to actively explore means to communicate to people to get to know President Rodrigo Duterte, and the executive branch. Andanar noted that there are 62 million active mobile users out of the 105 million Filipinos.

The DU30 App was developed by iBayad Online Ventures Inc. It is downloadable on Google Play, and the Apple Store for iPhone users.

Paolo Saycon, chief operating officer of iBayad, said the DU30 App is Andanar’s brainchild. Initially, it has links with PTV and Radyo Pilipinas. Other agencies within the scope of PCOO will also be added.

One of the features of the DU30 App is the sentiment analysis tool or the poll survey. It has also the Comment and Share, Quick Call, Caption This and Direct and Official Social Media Feeds.

After it was turned over to PCOO, Saycon said application is completely managed by PCOO. This was already reviewed by the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT).

According to Saycon, it took one year for iBayad to develop the application.

iBayad is also developing another feature of the application that will serve as a tool for President Duterte to send personal messages to the people.

There will be a module on the phone of the President or through Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go whereby the President can just send casual or non-formal messages to the people wherever he is.

This is aimed at bringing the President closer to the people, Saycon said.

iBayad has also developed another application initially called “Public Eye” which has tools on feedback, recording, and reporting for citizens to document any incident like crimes, damaged roads, among others.

It will have sub-categories depending on how the PCOO would develop the structure.

Once clicked, it directly opens the camera to serve as CCTV and GPS then the user can send it to the responsible agency. If it is of urgent or emergency situation it can be linked to the 8888 and 911.

Saycon, however, said the application is not yet ready because it needs more security features to protect citizens.

Mervin Caraan of the iBayad Business Development assured the application is still okay even with multiple reports.

He said the application can even be used by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) to report abuses.

There will be no problem on the magnitude of the download because iBayad is using the iCloud infrastructure network.