The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced that calls to the government's emergency 911 hotline are now free of charge, initially for PLDT, Smart, Talk 'N Text and Sun subscribers but warned to pranksters or fraudulent callers will suffer severe punishment as mandated by law.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año had encourage the public not to hesitate to dial 911 to an emergency situation. "We will not let the lack of mobile credit get in the way of saving lives as every second is important during emergency situations," he said.
According to DILG data, almost 3,500 emergency calls are acknowledged by the hotline per month with estimated 100 legitimate emergency calls per day.
Meanwhile Globe subscribers will still be charged a fee for calling 911, but DILG said the company is now working to waive the fees as well.
Año said that the hotline should only used for emergencies, and prank and fraudulent calls are punishable under law. If proven, pranksters will be punished with up to five years jail and Php40,000 fine based on Presidential Decree No. 1727.
He appeals to the public to dial the Emergency 911 Hotline for legitimate emergency calls only and stop using the hotline for prank, fraudulent calls. "Pasensyahan po tayo, kapag kayo po ay aming nahuli, kayo po ay mapaparusahan. May mga kababayan po tayong nangangailangan ng tulong na maaaring hindi kaagad marespondehan dahil sa mga prank calls na ito." He said.
No comments:
Post a Comment