MANILA, Philippines — The “revitalized” 911 emergency call system is effective in “saving lives and solving cases faster,” the Philippine National Police Communications and Electronics Service (PNP CES) said.
Although Executive Order No. 56 s. 2018 sought to institutionalize a nationwide emergency hotline, it was launched by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in partnership with private tech firm Next Generation Advanced (NGA) 911 Philippines last August.
READ: PNP eyes 5 minutes emergency response time as it bolsters 911 hotline
Under the system, the hotline first directs callers to the Emergency 911 (E911) National Office. If they avail police services, they are quickly routed to the PNP Command Center 911, which then takes the call and dispatches it to the police office with the respective jurisdiction.
READ: Police respond to 78% of 911 calls within five minutes – PNP
“It [results] in the rescue, saving of lives, saving of stolen properties. Kung hindi man maabot, faster resolution ng case (If it won’t make it in time, it will at least lead to a faster resolution of the case),” PNP CES Director Brig. Gen. Warren Tolito said in an interview with INQUIRER.net at Camp Crame.
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READ: DILG eyeing unified 911 emergency system
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Tolito pointed to a carnapping case in Caloocan City in August 2024.
According to the police report, a 46-year-old male entered a green cooking oil tanker in Barangay Kaybiga in Caloocan and drove off without the owner’s consent at around 12 noon on Aug. 25, 2024.
A 911 call was immediately placed with the PNP, which then relayed the information to the Bulacan Provincial Police Office.
Patrollers at the Obando Municipal Police Station then intercepted the tanker and apprehended the suspect.
“Naitawag. Naalarma lahat ng police stations. Naibato kung anong klaseng sasakyan, anong plate number, anong kulay, ano yung direksyon na pupuntahan niya (It was called in. Police stations were alerted to it. We relayed the type of vehicle, the plate number, the color, the direction he was heading in.),” Tolito explained.
The PNP CES director also cited a case in Misamis Oriental province where crime scene operatives arrived only to find a dead body but still managed to catch the victim’s killer.
“Although namatay na, the key naman dito is na-identify agad yung mga suspek dahil fresh pa sa isip ng mga tao yung nangyari,” Tolito stressed. ”Nakarating agad yung pulis, na-track down kaagad nila kung sino yung nakagawa sa shooting incident.”
(Although they were already dead, the key here is that the suspects were immediately identified because the incident was still fresh in people’s minds. The police arrived quickly and swiftly tracked down the culprits behind the shooting incident.)
Supervising the operations of the 911 stations in the PNP Command Center is the CES’ Maj. Alexander Abuel.
According to Abuel during a tour of the Command Center with INQUIRER.net, the police force had 10 terminals—each equipped with computers, a database of directories, radio and specialized software from NGA 911.
Each terminal had one call-taker and one dispatcher, with one team leader and one assistant supervisor to help oversee the operations—all rotating on eight-hour shifts to ensure the hotline maintains 24/7 service.
“Lahat ng pangyayari na nakukuha namin dito, binibigay namin sa kanila for their use like yung paggawa nila ng mga police response plan. Pwede nila magamit yun to prevent crimes (All the events that we collect information for here, we relay to local police for their use like with formulating police response plan. They can use that to prevent crimes.),” Abuel explained.
Data from the PNP CES showed that since its launch last August, the police’s 911 system saw officers responding to 78 percent of calls within five minutes — thanks to the improvement from decades-old analog infrastructure to internet protocol-based apparatus.
Country head for NGA 911 Robert Llaguno told INQUIRER.net that while the tech firm partnered with the DILG and the PNP for faster routing of calls, the collaboration could allow for more information to be used in emergency response.
“Next gen capability allows not only ingress of voice but also various information such as data, IOT, GIS and any other integrations, any other systems that is being used by the local government units or the national government agencies, such as body-worn cameras, CCTV streams, early warning systems, we can now integrate using our technology,” Llaguno said.
DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla previously underlined implementing a unified 911 emergency system across LGUs in the country.
“As far as I have been informed by the E911 National Office, there has been a rise in requests for them to conduct capacity development training. On our end as well, there is a rise in requests for us to conduct demonstrations,” Llaguno reporter.
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“We have installed our systems in several local government units already and I think they’re being used as benchmarks right now by other local government units as well, kaya bumibilis yung acceptance ng pagtayo (that’s why more people are accepting and setting up.),” he added.
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