Mayor’s emergency alerts to use digital billboards

THE next time an emergency strikes – like another earthquake – expect accurate alerts to light up in a few electronic billboards in Cebu City.

After Monday’s false alarm over a tsunami and the hysteria it caused, City Hall sought the help of billboard owners.

“But we will have the information filtered to only contain information coming from the office of the mayor,” said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday.

The mayor signed an agreement with operators of billboards in uptown Cebu City, along San Jose dela Montaña in Mabolo and at SM City at the North Reclamation Area for free use of their digital billboards “as the need arises.”

Rama said he also wanted to tap the help of a billboard operator in Mambaling in the south district.

Philip Zafra, the mayor’s chief of staff, said they are devising a system of how to relay official communication from the mayor’s office to operators of the electronic boards.

“This is part of their corporate responsibility,” he said.

At present, digital billboard owners post material based on messages received from their business clients through text or e-mail.

City Hall has to come up with a code or password to ensure that only authorized messages from the mayor’s office are posted.

In case of brownouts, Zafra said the mayor’s office will make calls through handheld radios to the billboard operators.

Announcements or warnings would be flashed on the digital boards for at least 24 hours.

Zafra said under the proposed system, calls made to a designated hotline will be received by a command center that relays the calls to the corresponding agencies.

“This works like a call center but they also have operators who are doctors and nurses who can facilitate the calls,” he said.