PLDT strike cripples DILG’s ‘Patrol 117’ emergency hotline

The labor strike at the Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Co. (PLDT) has partially crippled operations of the emergency hotline of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), radio reports said yesterday.

According to dzBB radio, the police hotline which responds to emergency calls could not be contacted during the New Year’s Eve celebration.

A number of residents complained that their distress calls for emergency assistance during fire outbreaks in the neighborhood could not get through.

Callers complained that the police hotline was busy all night.

However, a Patrol 117 operator who identified herself as "2004" denied there was a breakdown in operations of the police hotline.

But she admitted that the PLDT strike has triggered some technical problems like delay in outgoing calls to police and fire stations.

Although Patrol 117 has its own staff, it is dependent on the communications facilities of the PLDT in relaying emergency calls to police and fire stations.

"May kaunting problema lang (it’s a minor problem)," 2004 told The STAR.

The DILG Patrol 117 police hotline which operates nationwide has successfully responded to more than 4,000 calls all over the country.

The most significant emergency call received by the hotline was the distress call from a jogger along Roxas Boulevard in the early morning of Nov. 11, about a Laoag Airline plane crashing into Manila Bay.

The emergency call was relayed in minutes to fire, police and coast guard stations in Manila and 10 minutes later, a command search and rescue center was set up.

The police hotline also responded to a bus accident in Benguet province and a kidnap-for-ransom case in Valenzuela last year.