MANILA: It was a historic day for Filipinos all over the country as the Philippine National Police officially launched the nationwide government hotline 8888 for citizen complaint and hotline 911 for emergency on August 1.
However, on its first 7 hours of operation 1 119 out of 2 500 calls received are drop calls, 304 prank calls, and only 75 calls with legitimate concerns.
As of this writing, the PNP are tracking down prank callers that have swamped the newly launched nationwide quick response hotlines.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa warned prank callers to the hotline: “We are currently tracking the prank callers and we will make sure that you will be unmasked.”
He also appealed to Filipinos to “refrain from making prank calls or test calls to our 911 hotline because this will clog up the lines and prevent the people with real emergencies to reach us”.
Dela Rosa also directed all Police Chiefs in the country to “be alert and respond to the calls routed to you by our 911 call center and to immediately provide police assistance to our people when needed”.
The hotlines were in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign to stamp out crimes and corruption in government.
De la Rosa said policemen are the first responders for now, saying the 45-station strong call center can directly connect only to police units. He said it would be up to police responders to reach other emergency units.
The government hopes that eventually the 911 hotline will connect callers to police, fire, medical and other emergency units, De la Rosa said.
