Prank calls bedevil Cebu police emergency hotline

CEBU CITY — The Metro Cebu Hotline Patrol 117, launched last April 9 to provide prompt response to emergencies, has turned into a big joke.

Consider these: "Hello? Pizza delivery" "Pwede bang makipag-phone pal?" or "Nandiyan ba si Rico Yan?"

Yes, these are but some of the prank calls that have since flooded the hotline. And with 85 percent of the more than a hundred calls received on the hotline daily turning but to be pranks, according to Chief Inspector Alfredo Macabudbud, the emergency response service, patterned after 911 in the United States, is in serious trouble indeed.

Some callers, Macabudbud said, do not just ask silly questions but are downright rude and insulting, as those who call just to tell the operator"Bati kag nawong (You’re ugly)."

To solve the problem, the hotline center, based at the regional office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Sudlon, has started returning the calls of pranksters and reprimanding them.

Macabudbud also said the hotline center has started consolidating the numbers of prank callers and will be forwarding these to the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. for appropriate action.

It is not clear, however, if the police will be taking its own action against the pranksters aside from reprimanding them.

Police regional director Avelino Razon Jr. is appealing to the public to instead support the hotline by calling it only in real emergencies.

"We put up the system to help you," Razon said.

Aside from police assistance, the hotline can also be used to call in a fire alarm or for immediate paramedic response.

The hotline is open 24 hours a day and operators are on standby to take the calls and relay them immediately to the concerned parties.

Still, the hotline has yet another problem aside from pranks.

Apparently, some of its calls directed to the concerned parties are not being acknowledged, as what happened to a call for police assistance directed to the Mambaling police.

Five Mambaling policemen are now in hot water after allegedly refusing a request from the hotline center to respond to a call for assistance.

Razon has ordered the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division to look into the allegation. — Freeman News Service