Emergency hotlines get initial calls for ambulance, escaping lover
Only a few minutes after emergency hotlines 8888 for citizens’ complaints and 911 for emergency cases were launched yesterday, they started to receive initial distress calls for ambulance and rescue for a woman who found a man running away from the irate husband of his lover in her balcony.
During the first seven hours of operation of the emergency hotlines, some 2,475 calls were received with the initial call made at 12:01 a.m. for
ambulance rescue in Antipolo City.
With 45 call center agents receiving the calls, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said only 75 calls were legitimate calls, 1,119 were dropped calls and 304 were prank calls.
Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno reiterated his appeal to the public to refrain from using the emergency telephone numbers for other purposes as inappropriate calls may hinder the delivery of the required services during urgent cases.
PNP Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, said 911 Philippines is ready to respond to disaster and emergencies like fire, typhoon, earthquake, landslides, tsunami, flood, terrorist attack, civil disturbance, riot control, search and rescue, vehicular accidents, etc.
At present callers are charged 15.50 per emergency call but the president hopes to free the public from any expenses when making these calls.
Citizens may expect response in 5-10 minutes after making the call, depending on the situation and traffic.
Emergency number 8888 which is President Rodrigo Duterte’s hotline has been institutionalized as an AllCitizen Complaint Center and is dedicated to complaints against fixers, scalawag officials and inept government services.
Police officers will serve as the initial batch of respondents to 911 calls while plans are still being ironed out to make the hotline connected with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to make it more responsive to disaster and calamity related situations.
The formal launch of the national emergency hotline was conducted at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Dela Rosa said the 911 system, which has been in existence in the home city of President Duterte since 2003, has been proven effective during emergency response situation.
“The 911 in Davao City has been in existence for 13 years already,” Dela Rosa said.
“Kaya ganun kabilis dahil iyung police cars ay strategically located doon sa area... mayroon na naka-deploy doon (The service is fast because the police cars are strategically located in area),” he added.
The PNP chief also said the nationwide hotline number will connect all callers to emergency, police or fire services.
Dela Rosa said if an incident is just near a police station, they expect emergency response teams to arrive at the area by three minutes, just like in Davao City.
Dela Rosa said when it comes to putting up the necessary infrastructure to make the 911 project work, so far Davao City, Taguig City, and Marikina City have it.
“Manila I am not particular. Taguig and Marikina are the ones which have the infrastructure for 911. So hopefully the other cities and municipalities all over the Philippines will follow suit so that before President Duterte’s term ends, the 911 system will run smoothly and efficiently.
Prank calls
“The reading from the data of more than 2,000 calls indicates that there have been 1,000 dropped calls and 300 prank calls,” Dela Rosa said.
Reports also said that the first call was received at 12:06 a.m. Monday wherein a caller asked for an ambulance rescue in Antipolo City.
Dela Rosa asked callers to be more responsible and avoid making prank calls to avoid clogging the lines which were intended for legitimate emergency calls.
“Right now, 100 percent communication equipped iyung ating kapulisan. Iyung ating communication system is up to the last responder kumpleto. Iyung ating patrol car may radio connected doon sa police station. Iyung police station may radio to the PPO, iyung province connected to the region and yung region connected sa NOC. So kaya kami very brave na ilaunch ito ngayon for police emergencies ready na kami lalo na sa communications,” he said.
Meanwhile, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the office of the executive secretary is already drafting the executive order to make calls using cellphones free.
“I do believe the15 that Globe and Smart are charging is based on the good practices in the US. I understand Rescue 911 in the US they do charge and one of the reasons they charge is to discourage the prank callers,” Andanar said.
Romeo in the balcony
A netizen named Rosario Juan happily reported that the 911 hotline was already working as early as 1:30 a.m. on August 1, its first day of implementation.
In her blog and Facebook post, Ms. Juan said that she called 911 after a commotion which happened in her condominium building.
“At 12:45 a.m., I went into my living room to check on things before heading to bed. I looked at my window and saw the shadow of a man standing at the balcony of my condominium (several floors above street level), knocking to get my attention,” Juan wrote.
She hurriedly dialed the guard’s number to get help and fortunately the guard responded right away.
“The guard came in, told me to turn the lights on, and we saw a foreign man sitting by my window, begging to come in because he says he left his keys,” she shared.
The guard confirmed that what the foreigner was saying was true saying, “Ma’am, pwede bang ilabas ko na lang yan. Yan yung kalaguyo nung nasa taas eh. Nag-aaway ngayon. Kasi nahuli ng asawa.” (The man is the lover of one of the tenants here and they were caught by the husband.)
Juan decided to call 911 and after a few rings, someone picked up right away. She explained the situation to the person on the line and was asked if she wanted police to go to her place.
In less than an hour after the call, police officers were already at the place. While the police told Juan that she can’t charge the foreigner for “trespassing,” they told her that they will just take the man in to “teach” him a lesson.