From 15, the Emergency 911 workforce will be 45 by mid-August.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) plans to increase the workforce of the agents receiving calls to emergency hotline 911.
When the emergency hotline was launched on August 1 at 12:01 AM, it started with 15 call center agents receiving the calls and connecting to responders needed by the callers. Four days later, they doubled it to cater to the increasing number of those who call for help.
In an interview with DILG Usec. JV Hinlo, the official said that they have observed many ‘abandoned calls’ or the calls made by those who want to report an emergency but left the line while waiting to be answered by the agent who is still hooked on the other line attending to another emergency.
Hinlo confirmed that on August 15, the DILG is set to add another 15 agents to make the workforce three-folds bigger than it was in the start.
He also confirmed that the president wanted to make accessing to 911 free of charge. An executive order is now being drafted to order the telecommunication companies not to charge any fee to the caller.
911 service, also referred to by its official name, Emergency Network Philippines (ENP), is available nationwide 24/7. Depending on the location of the call, a 911 call will route to any of the sixteen existing 117 call centers located in various cities around the Philippines. Each call center serves a single region.
Telecommunications Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said that all calls to 911 will be rerouted to the existing Patrol 117 hotline while the 911 command center is not yet established.
Opposite the 911 hotline is the 8888 line of the Civil Service Commission which is open to complaints about abusive public servants and government employees. President Rodrigo Duterte has swiftly implemented these services a month after his formal term in office.