Prank, dropped calls account 80% of Baguio’s Emergency 911 records

Baguio City, Philippines – Eighty percent of the calls being made to the Baguio City Emergency 911 that piloted on October 12 are prank and dropped calls, this is based on data released through the City Public Information Office (PIO).

In a PIO press release, Felipe Puzon, Executive Assistant V of the City Mayor’s Office, informed that there is a total of 8,673 calls logged to the Baguio 911 line since October 12 when it received its ‘go live’ status.

Of this number, 3,907 were said to be prank calls, and 3,038 were dropped calls.

Meanwhile, most of the legitimate calls received were medical emergencies, police assistance, vehicular traffic accidents, crimes, nuisance, suicide cases, and rescue assistance.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong appealed to the public not to make fun of the emergency line in order not to impede legitimate calls, particularly the urgent ones since these could be life and death situations.

“It is expected that people would want to test the line out of curiosity, and it is fine as long as you signify that these are test calls. However, if your intention is to jam the line, confuse or just play a trick to the responders, then please refrain from doing so,” the mayor expressed.

Meantime, cross-connection had also been completed between the PLDT and Smart Communications so that the emergency calls through Smart could be received at Baguio 911.

Additionally, the same arrangements are being worked with Globe Telecommunications involving the national office of the Emergency 911 and the Department of Interior and Local Government.

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