911 hotline launched vs La Niña

Interior and Local Goverment Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. on Thursday urged local goverment units to established their own 911 emergency system call center specially with the onset of the La Niña phenomenon.

Abalos, who guested at the Emergency 911 (E911) National Summit at EDSA Shangri-La in Mandaluyong City on Wednesday, said the hotline 911 emergency response system was launched based on United States 911 system for an immediate response to emergencies in the country.

“The idea is to create a seamless, nationwide communication infrastructure for emergency services. We will make sure that we will use the latest tools and techniques around the world. We are now starting this,” Abalos said.

He emphasized that LGUs should help the national goverment in putting up their own 911 system, to effectively carry responses to eventualities by setting up their own local emergency call center, like the decentralized system in the US.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between DILG and telecommunications giant, Next Generation Advanced 911 and PLDT has been forged, for a donation of an advanced technology of a “precise caller location services,” advanced mapping and incident management systems, data analytics, video streaming, omni-channel messaging, and integration of body and vehicle cameras in responses to emergencies.

”The only thing we could do to implement this in the most efficient way is to [use] technology. That’s the only way,” Abalos said.