‘We want caller-ID’

Caller-ID helps keep pranksters away.

Metro Manila policemen are seeking the immediate installation of caller-identification devices on all phones at police stations to prevent bogus calls, especially phony bomb threats.

According to operatives of the Central Police District, the device will put an end to prank calls and to "save them a lot of precious time."

"We get bombarded with bomb reports every day and most, if not all, are just phony calls by some joker who has nothing better to do. The sad thing is, we still have to check the threat," Senior Inspector Rodolfo Jaraza, chief of the CPD-Intelligence Unit, told The STAR.

Investigators said all 11 police stations in Quezon City are not equipped with caller-ID devices. They added that stations and even precincts are targets of phony calls because of the "public phone numbers."

"Some unscrupulous individuals are taking advantage of the current situation," PO3 Rogelio Esteves said.

Police said many stations had actually been equipped with caller-IDs when Sen. Panfilo Lacson was still Philippine National Police chief, but it was later scrapped.

"Sen. Lacson was very strict on security measures. But I guess the PNP right now feels that it is very expensive to provide such equipment to all police stations in the metropolis," a CPD official said.

Many policemen are reportedly getting weary over the barrage of phony bomb threats.

"Once these pranksters find out that their numbers have been traced, they would not dare try another phony call again. Otherwise, overworked policemen will be itching to confront them in a minute," Jaraza said. — Matthew Estabillo