Bacolod city: This highly urbanized city will launch a geofenced 911 emergency hotline later this month as part of the several governance and service-delivery reforms under the administration of Mayor Greg Gasataya.
According to Philippines News Agency, the state-of-the-art emergency response system will be unveiled by the third week of February. Mayor Gasataya confirmed plans for a centralized 6100 hotline, which will replace multiple department-specific contact lines, creating a single point for public concerns.
Gasataya announced the developments during a forum with the local business community earlier this week. He assured the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of the city's support through various initiatives.
With the launch of the geofenced emergency hotline, Bacolodnons can dial only three numbers to be directly connected to the city's operations center for response. This system uses GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID, or cellular data to establish a virtual boundary around a physical area.
Jose Evram Vera, research and planning chief of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, noted that currently, all emergency calls from Bacolod are routed through operations centers in Cebu or Negros Occidental before reaching the city's own center. He stated, "Our hotlines are still mobile numbers, but once the 911 system is in place, the callers can just dial 911. If you are in Bacolod City, we can directly answer the call."
The 911 technology, which places a geofence on the local government unit's area of responsibility, can provide the location of a call from the start and match the caller with the nearest responder locations.
