911 emergency hotline draws praises

Despite the huge number of prank calls, the start of operations of the country’s national emergency hotline 911 was welcomed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and lawmakers, hailing it as a government service that’s been long overdue.

DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno said that, judging from the volume of calls received by 911 for the first 24 hours of operation, the public awareness for the emergency hotline was already widespread.

“We definitely had a good start,” Sueno said.

The first 911 call received by the National 911 Center came at 12:06 a.m. from Antipolo City, requesting for ambulance service.

Yesterday, over 33,000 calls were received by the 911 operation center, which was almost a 1,000 percent increase from the 3,500 daily average of calls received by the previous 117 hotline center.

From a meager 15-seater call center emergency hotline operation, the 911 operation center has doubled to a 30-seat nationwide disaster hotline center.

Sueno reiterated his earlier appeal to the public to stop testing 911 because for every attempt to dial the number without the real intention to seek emergency assistance, one or more lives are put at risk.

“Anyone who dials 911 will be accepted and registered in the 911 system, however, due to increased volume in calls, particularly prank calls, we were not able to respond accordingly to such emergencies because our system has been clogged,” he said.

Praise for the national emergency hotline also came from the House of Representatives, with former Speaker Feliciano Belmonte noting that it was the first time that one hotline number was designated for the entire country.

“Actually 911 has existed for years in other countries. Various agencies also have emergency numbers, pero kanya kanya (they differ from each other),” he said.