MANILA (XINHUA) – The Philippine’s nationwide 911 emergency hotline received a total of 2.54 million fraudulent, hoax, or prank calls in 2019, the Philippine Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano said yesterday.

Of the 18.48 million calls received totally, Ano said only 37,440 were legitimate calls, 1,676 were non-emergency, 9.72 million were incomplete calls, and 2.54 million were fraudulent, hoax, or prank calls.

Ano expressed dismay that “one in every two calls received were incomplete calls that were either abandoned, disconnected, dropped, or garbled”. “We are urging the public to practice discipline in making 911 calls,” Ano said in a statement.

“For every prank or incomplete call that you make, there could be other people out there whose lives may be in danger or who need emergency assistance but could not go through because the lines are busy,” he added.