Council to nat’l gov’t: Help us explain 911 to city residents

THE Cebu City Council is asking the different agencies involved in the new 24-hour hotline system to educate the residents of Cebu City about this.

The council in a resolution said that putting up a 24-hour hotline center will be an effective tool in addressing the country’s emergency concerns as it allows responders to quickly act to natural and man-made disasters, police assistance as well as reported medical emergencies, but how this would work should be explained thoroughly.

Cebu City Councilor David Tumulak, chairman of the Council Committee on Peace and Order, said that the new system would be very helpful to the residents of the city, and it should harmonize with the existing emergency system of the city.

“The use of 911 as hotline would bring good in terms of the city’s peace and order, disaster and calamities; more so, if the system could accommodate at least 10 emergency calls per minute for quicker and efficient response during emergency situations,” said Tumulak, who sponsored the resolution approved by the City Council during last week’s session.

Tumulak added that there is also a need to execute among responders like the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (Eruf), Philippine Red Cross among others in responding to alarms under the 911 system.

The concerned agencies that the City Council would want to help in the information campaign on the procedure of the 911 system are the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), National Telecommunication Commission (NTC), Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) and the Office of the President.

Tumulak said that they would have a meeting next week with concerned agencies for the discussion of 911 system.

At present, Cebu City Command Center (C3) continues to receive diverted emergency calls from 911 Manila.

Nagiel Bañacia, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRMO) chief, earlier said that a longer response time was experienced since all calls will have to go through the 911 system in Manila before they are diverted to Cebu for the response.

Banacia added that there were even emergency from Bogo and Danao City among others that were diverted to Cebu City.

The 24-hour emergency hotline is supposed to operate nationwide.