“Here”, of course, being the Philippines. I’ve said before and undoubtedly will again that the best thing the Philippines could do for national advancement is to make it illegal to utter the phrase, “if Only”. Apparently, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has struck that “weak sister” phrase from his vocabulary for many years now. he is known world-wide for his crime fighting efforts. Now, he’s brought Davao City into the 21st century ahead of any other city in the Philippines and, in fact, far ahead of the vast majority of US cities. Most Filipinos will never know just what can be done in the Philippines because they have been trained since childhood to think “It won’t work in the Philippines”.
A fact many people planning to move to the Philippines may not have considered is that there is no national emergency 911 number. The Philippines is very much like the US was 50 years ago where ambulance service is on a catch as catch can basis … and if you need a police officer … well better know which barangy you reside in because the local barangy captains “tanod” civil patrol is likely the only people who might respond to an emergency … if you know the local phone number.
Even in the US where 911 works almost anywhere, response is often fragmented. There are more than 3,000 counties in the US and each and everyone of them goes their own way with respect to emergency services. In addition thee are hundreds more individual larger cities which handle their emergency services separate from their county. Some cites and counties have been “studying” mergers of city and country services for 20 years now.
In Davao the mayor took the carabao by the horns so to speak and just build what is known as an :”Enhanced 911″ (E911) system which links together the police, fire. ambulances and a tool called computer aided dispatch which, along with GPS and GPS-enhanced maps, pinpoints the emergency location and the closest vehicles to respond.
The clever part of this system is that it leverages the local power company’s dispatch abilities as well as something sorely needed in the Philippines … standardized addresses. Instead of dealing with the multiplicity of street names, jumbles of buildings built where there is no street and other impediments to knowing the location of an emergency site, the minds behind the system took advantage of a factor present in virtually every city, world-wide. The power company ‘touches” virtually every residential and commercial unit in the city and the power company has already invested in a locating scheme to know where every single meter is .. obvious, when you think of it, because you can’t run an electric distribution system without knowing where your customers physically are.
My hat is off to Mayor Duterte and the people of Davao … they believed in themselves instead of the “it can’t be done” chorus … and this certainly places Davao a lot higher on my list of places I would like to live.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Hi Dave – As you know, I live in Davao. I’ve used the 911 system before, and it really works. The 911 center is located in the heart of town, near the Marco Polo Hotel. I believe that the 911 system has been in place for about 5 years now, as I recall. Like you, my hat is off to Mayor Duterte on this!
Interesting, Bob. I guess I was surprised to know that it has been in operation 5 years. You would think it would have spread to at least a few other cities by now. It’s funny to me … in the non-humorous sense … because I worked with similar programs in the US and the electric utilities … even those that were city-owned were frequently reluctant to help out their community with the data they had already collected. I would guess that the mayor probably “leaned” on someone somewhere along the way to get them into a “public spirited” mood.
Really proves up my contention, though, that so often the Philippines lags in many issues not because of it’s status, but because it “believes” the third-world rubbish excuse. It’s like a kid with mild dyslexia … just becuase s/he may have alittle difficulty keeping the “i” and the “e” from transposing doesn’t mean s/he can’t learn.
Hi Dave (oops…. Philly) –
I don’t know that the 5 years is precise, but it’s been around that long that our 911 system has been operational. When it comes to getting cooperation from people like the Electric Company, when Mayor Duterte talks – people listen and act!
Davao is very forward thinking. We also have other things in place that are common around the world, but limited to Davao in the Philippines. For example, we have garbage segregation and recycling. All trash must be segregated into different categories before pickup. If you don’t segregate properly, you can actually go to jail for that! Mayor Duterte is a big fan of putting people in jail if they don’t follow the policies! We had the first anti-smoking law in the country too. About 6 years ago that was instituted. Lots of people went to jail for smoking a cigarette in a public place! Amazing…. it’s forward thinking – in a backwards sort of way!