The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world with typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and volcanic risks very much a part of its landscape.
Add the daily occurrence of crimes, accidents, thefts, and life-threatening emergencies and the need for a fast, efficient, and accurate emergency response system becomes mandatory.
An outdated, disjointed system of emergency response solutions across LGUs tends to complicate the situation, however.
Recently, US-headquartered NGA 911 — known globally for its next-generation 911 emergency communications technology — recently introduced its solution into the country.
Morong, Rizal is the first municipality in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia to adopt the new technology as it activated its emergency response command center in Barangay San Pedro last May.
Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Alaminos, Pangasinan are next in line for activation, while other LGUs have also been briefed on how they can raise their emergency response systems to world-class level. The long-term goal is to unify the country’s emergency response system for a unified, effective response to disaster and emergencies.
The state-of-the-art NGA 911 technology guarantees that within a few seconds, an emergency call is routed to the nearest responding agency. The system is built on industry standards adopted by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) in the United States and the European Emergency Number Association (EENA).
“When someone calls 911, the operator asks for details like location, barangay, landmarks, and area before connecting them to emergency responders. In our case, the moment the call is picked up, its location is accessed simultaneously. Ninety percent of calls are answered within 10 seconds, and by the first minute, the dispatch team is already being sent out. While en route, the team receives messages, instructions, details about the incident, the case and the caller’s information,” explained NGA 911 Philippines country head Robert Llaguno.
“NGA 911, a live solution, is IoT (Internet of Things)-capable so we are also able to integrate not only calls, landlines, but are also CCTV systems,” Llaguno added.
“The way it helps Filipinos is that at a high level, we’re bringing the US-based 911 system to the Philippines so it increases the safety and security of each and every Filipino citizen,” said Don Ferguson, co-founder and CEO of NGA 911 LLC.
Ferguson, a member of Pres. Barack Obama’s technology and innovation team in charge of modernizing public safety communications, said NGA 911 sees the service as being “available to every citizen in the Philippines, nationwide”.
“We see emergency response deepening in terms of its ability to respond, its being connected to vehicles so there are things like crash detection, so when that occurs, the vehicle can send all of the information about the crash and the vehicle to public safety,” Ferguson said.
“We see it connected into personal emergency response systems that are connected into health records for say, the elderly, that have additional concerns about immediate response. We see a deepening emergency response and faster response with more advanced situational awareness.”
He added: “We are proud to be here in the Philippines and thank you for the opportunity of delivering this advanced public safety service to each and every citizen in the country. It is here, it is now, it is live and we offer that to every LGU across the nation. We now look forward to our next major milestone which is the launch of the system for the Philippine National Police on August 8.”
