3-minute police quick response to boost Davao City Emergency 911

Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, the police regional director of Davao regional police, said implementing the three-minute police response time here would greatly boost the efficiency of the city’s emergency 911, a legacy of former president and former mayor Rodrigo Duterte, father of incumbent mayor Sebastian Duterte. INQUIRER FILES

DAVAO CITY — Davao Region police chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III said implementing the three-minute police response time here would greatly boost the efficiency of the city’s Emergency 911.

Torre’s comment came after the Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, still outraged by the reassignment of 19 police station commanders here without his consent, slammed the Davao Region police chief’s pet project and even threatened to slap the police general.

Duterte, in his program, “Basta Dabawenyo,” said Torre’s three-minute police rule did not make any difference in Davao City. “He has already been here a month, what has his three-minute response done? Does it make much of a difference?” the mayor asked in Cebuano.

But Torre said that a fast police response time would perfectly complement the city’s emergency 911 and will further boost the city’s efficiency in responding to both manmade and natural calamities.

“What’s the use of a quick emergency 911 if police can’t be there on time?” Torre asked. “I think the mayor is just misinformed. Despite what the mayor already said, the police will continue to give the best service it can give to the city,” Torre said in an interview with reporters.

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He also said that if the mayor wanted it, he could even upgrade the police response time from the three minutes he implemented in Quezon City to 2:45 minutes, which would make Davao City even the fastest responding police unit in the country.

Torre, however, is still currently activating the police’s integrated command control center (iC3), a P10 million project inside Camp Quintin Merecido here, which had not been used since it was turned over to the command in January this year as the station commanders whom he reassigned “did not want to use because it would mean additional work for them,” according to Torre.

With the use of gadgets and body cameras worn by responding policemen, the command control center through its numerous LCD screens and computers will be able to monitor in real time what’s going on in the ground during emergencies.

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He said he had been meeting the city’s new station commanders to train them how to use the radio and other police gadgets that enable them to easily connect with other policemen in as far as remote Paquibato and Marilog districts here and any part of the country. He said he was surprised that police station commanders seemed reluctant to use the best that the digital age had to offer to improve police service to the community.

To recall, Davao City Emergency 911 was a legacy of former President Rodrigo Duterte, father of the incumbent mayor. The older Duterte also served as the city’s chief executive before his children took the helm when he became president.

Torre assumed his post on June 16 here, replacing Brigadier General Aligre Martinez, who was relieved after barely 50 days in his post. Martinez’s relief came three days after the June 10 police operation that failed to arrest Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who is facing charges of child abuse, sexual abuse and human trafficking in Davao City and Pasig City courts but continued to evade arrest.

Quiboloy, founder of the religious sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), has been a close friend and supporter of former President Duterte, whom the sect leader assigned as administrator of his properties.

Torre, however, said the arrest of Quiboloy was not in his focus right now.