central 911

• Law pushed to penalize prank callers

A LAWMAKER pushed to pass an ordinance that would crack down on prank calls that sometimes overload the city’s 911 hotline, which should have been reserved for emergencies. 

Councilor Bonz Andrei Militar, committee chair on information technology, said prank emergency calls waste resources of the city. 

“Daghang prank calls, makagasto gyud og resources kay paadtoan og ambulance, pag-abot didto wala diay (There’s a significant number of prank calls and the city is wasting resources because we send an ambulance only to find out there’s no emergency,” Militar said in an interview with the city-owned disaster radio. 

Militar reported that of the almost 3,000 calls daily, only about 30 are real emergencies. 

He said the city will establish a partnership with telecommunications companies to keep track of the identity of the callers. 

“Para malaman nato through their registration kinsa gyud tong nanawag,” he said. 

The proposed ordinance will incorporate the modernization of 911, such as GPS-based caller tracking and geotagging to accurately locate patients or callers, especially in hard-to-navigate barangays.

Presently, the measure of Central 911 is to flag and block repeat prank calls, but no penalties. 

In an earlier interview, Lyndon Leovic Ancajas, acting head of the Law Enforcement, Communication, and Rescue Division (LECRD) of Central 911, said there would be no more space for genuine emergencies if prank callers overload the system. 

He explained that if someone dials 911 and just rings, all 10 lines are possibly occupied, so the 11th caller will need to wait until a line becomes available.

Photo from the City Government of Davao