Bantay 161 switched on

Mandaue City government has integrated its emergency and rescue services.

The Bantay Mandaue 161 was launched yesterday morning at the newly inaugurated command center located just beside the City Hall.

Under the new emergency response system, the command of the Accident Control and Emergency Rescue Team (Acert), Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (Eruf), Mandaue City Fire Station and different barangay volunteers groups have been integrated.

Emergency telephone calls from either land line or mobile phone will elicit an immediate response under Bantay Mandaue 161. The system aims to comply with the international standard response time of two minutes.

Mandaue City’s 27 barangays has been divided into five clusters namely Kabukiran (mountain barangays) , Kadagatan (barangays near or facing Mactan channel), Butuanon (barangays near Butuanon river), Mahiga (barangays near Mahiga creek) and Eruf (barangays at city proper) each cluster has rescue trucks.

Eruf upgrade

The Eruf has also unveiled its new state of the art equipment consisting of a van equipped with a 360-degree camera, wi-fi internet and rescue gear; and a fire truck from the Netherlands. These equipment are stationed in the barangay Basak fire sub-station.

“We have also distributed our rescue vehicles to different bases to shorten alarm response time,” said Dr. Pek-ing Lim, the operations manager of Eruf.

He added that its response base in a 5,000-square-meter lot in the reclamation area will soon rise. The completion of the project will make Eruf’s emergency response base, the biggest in the country.

In case of emergencies, people have only to dial 161 from a landline, the command center receives it and dispatches a team.