Emergency response services must be accessible to every citizen regardless of location or native language, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla announced Friday.

Stressing that national safety initiatives must extend far beyond Metro Manila, Remulla highlighted ongoing efforts to bring the Unified 911 System directly to provincial communities.

As part of the expansion effort, local authorities turned over 20 emergency response motorcycles to Iloilo City and Aklan to enhance local quick-response capabilities.

The Unified 911 system incorporates regional command posts equipped with geo-tagging technology and language-sensitive call handling.

The regional setup allows telecommunicators fluent in local dialects to process calls and dispatch assistance rapidly without language barriers.

Remulla cited that citizens should feel comfortable seeking urgent help even if they do not speak English or Tagalog.

Officials cited recent rapid responses facilitated by the system across the country, including an incident in San Fernando, La Union, where responders arrived within three minutes to transport three mushroom poisoning victims to a hospital.

Similar rapid interventions occurred in Bacolod City, where emergency personnel dispatched a local ambulance to treat an elderly woman suffering from a head injury and fracture, and in Butuan City, where a call reporting a vehicle collision led to police intervention and medical help within three minutes.

To support the decentralized network, the national government has established five regional call centers in Cebu, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Iloilo and Leyte alongside the primary facility in Metro Manila.