Prank calls swamp 911 hotline

ON THE FIRST day of the activation of the 911 hotline nationwide, there were more dropped and prank calls than there were calls for actual emergency assistance.

Seven hours after activation, the hotline had already received 2,475 phone calls, the Philippine National Police reported on Monday. Unfortunately, only 3 percent (75) were legitimate calls.

Forty-five percent (1,119) were dropped calls and 12 percent (304) were classified as prank calls. The rest of the calls were still being validated as of press time.

Another hotline, 8888 of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), was launched on Monday for complaints on erring government personnel, red tape or corruption. As of 5:30 p.m., it received 277 calls, or an average of 28 calls during the day.

Most of the callers complained about slow government service, while some inquired about assistance.

President Duterte earlier promised a hotline under the Office of the President for the public to phone in their complaints.

The CSC allocated 30 lines for complaints, with at most 15 call agents responding from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. The hotline is open 24/7.

The hotline agents also received a few prank calls, according to the CSC contact center. The agency’s chair, Alicia Bala, had earlier asked the public to make only legitimate calls.

Pranksters warned

No less than PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has threatened prank callers with arrest.

“The 911 system is currently tracking the prank callers and we will make sure you will be unmasked and arrested,” Dela Rosa said at a press briefing at PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

He appealed to the public “to refrain from making prank calls or test calls to our 911 hotline because this will clog up the lines and prevent people with real emergencies from reaching us.”

So far, the legitimate calls involved requests for ambulances, reports on vehicular accidents and public disturbances, such as persons running amok, riots, drag racing and drinking in public places, as well as harassment and peddling narcotics.

For now, the 911 hotline is being manned by 45 police personnel, rendering it mostly as a police hotline for crimes or police-related emergencies, according to Dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa said the operators’ job mostly entailed coordinating with local police offices, which would then contact other emergency responders in their areas if need be.

“It will take some time to integrate the other emergency response like fire, medical and disaster because we are still building the capabilities of local government units to be able to provide and sustain such services,” he said.

EO for free calls

At the press briefing, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said an executive order making the 911 hotline free of charge was being drafted. Telecommunications networks are currently charging P5 per call.

Given the prospects of more prank calls, Andanar said: “It is part of the civic responsibility of every Filipino to act responsibly and to help each other … We also expect the citizenry to be cooperative to the government.”

He urged local governments to cooperate, noting that some in Metro Manila were ready to have 911 calls diverted to them.

Calls to the former emergency hotline 117 would, for now, be diverted to 911, he said. Eventually, 117 will be deactivated.

Response time

At present, response time to nationwide 911 calls is five to 10 minutes, according to Dela Rosa. He said he hoped Davao City’s time of four to seven minutes could also be followed.

Another text hotline, 2286 or “Text Bato,” will be for information on narcotics operations or crimes, he said. The text hotline 2920 will eventually be subsumed under “Text Bato.”

“It’s not going to be a smooth sailing ahead. We will have a lot of problems. But then again, being the call center capital of Asia, even the world, I do believe we can solve all those problems,” Andanar said.