Photo from BFP R7 – Cebu City Fire Station/Facebook
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City has strengthened its emergency response following the launching of its 911 command center.
On Monday, the city government officially activated the 911 hotline with the opening of the command center on the second floor of the City Hall’s legislative building.
They partnered with Next Generation Advanced 911 (NGA 911), a global innovator of emergency calling technology, for this command center.
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It was NGA 911 Country Manager Robert Llaguno who demonstrated how 911 would work last May.
Llaguno previously explained that in the Philippines, when someone calls 911, the operator asks for details like their location, barangay, landmarks, and area before connecting them to emergency responders.
“In our case, the moment that you actually pick up the call, you are able to access its location immediately. So, this is actually accessing the location via Wi-Fi at the moment. But eventually, we would be utilizing Fiber with at least two redundancy systems or two redundancy circuits for Cebu City,” Llaguno said.
Llaguno said that they partnered with AWS (Amazon Web Services) for their data centers, and Google’s emergency location service for their location capabilities.
“NGA 911 is a live solution. We are already replacing the Legacy System in the United States. It’s IOT (Internet of Things) capable so we are also able to ingress not only calls, landlines, but we are also able to integrate your CCTV systems,” the country manager added.
911 Command Center
The city government considers the opening of the 911 command center a milestone, especially that Cebu City is a highly urbanized city in a disaster-prone country, acting Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said.
“An efficient emergency response system is crucial to maintaining safety, security, peace, and order. Our goal is to accelerate our efforts and empower our emergency responders to be on par with advanced cities worldwide,” Garcia said.
Llaguno said that all calls when dialing 911 are “free” which is also in accordance with former President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 56 which institutionalized 911 as the nationwide emergency answering point, replacing Patrol 117.
The new 911 Command Center is equipped with advanced technology that will allow emergency responders to quickly locate callers with 90 percent accuracy within the city, providing faster response time.
“It has always been our vision to provide the best services to our constituents. We’ve taken significant steps to address critical needs like flood mitigation, health services, and policy mobility,” Acting Mayor Garcia said.
So far, NGA 911 has already provided its services to other local governments in the country such as Morong, Rizal; Alaminos, Pangasinan; and Cagayan de Oro.
Emergency hotline launced in Rizal
Last May 6, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) launched the emergency 911 command center in Rizal.
Some officials present in the event were DILG Usec. Lord Villanueva, Cebu City Councilors Joel Garganera, Jocelyn Pesquera, Eduardo “Jaypee” Labella II, and Renato “Junjun” Osmeña Jr.
Villanueva said that Cebu City was the first LGU in the Visayas region to activate a 911 system.
“This is more than just a technological advancement; it’s about saving lives. Cebu is now at par with global standards, and we’re excited to see how this system will make a real difference in emergency response,” he said.
Engineer Dante Arcilla, Jr., head of the Management Information and Computer Services (MICS), said in May that a budget of P9 million was approved for the 911 system.
This will include all necessary equipment and infrastructure to establish the system. The city will then pay a monthly fee of close to P3 million for the system.