MANILA - President Duterte's desire to bolster direct links between

government and the public can be credited for the initial success of a new emergency hotline.

Patrol 117 Commission's Allan Tabell said this on Wednesday, sharing that hotline 911 received 65,008 calls from its launch at 12 a.m. Monday up until Wednesday noon.

The new emergency line replaced the now defunct hotline 117, which Tabell said was "left aside and not given priority" by previous administrations.

"It (117) sort of shied away from its main objectives and other agencies -- response agencies, most especially -- were not as cooperative as they are today," he said in an interview with ANC's "Dateline".

"Today, it's obvious that the President has made this program a priority of government so other agencies are participating quite eagerly."

Tabell said the 911 hotline is showing a quicker response time at an average of 7 minutes, compared to 117.

"I would attribute that to the better cooperation extended to us by responding agencies," he said.

Hotline 911 has resolved some 4,000 legitimate cases which were mostly drug reports and requests for ambulances, according to Tabell.



Currently, there is only one 911 call center manned by 30 agents. Government aims to open another 15-man call center in Cebu by August 15.

Tabell said the 911 project has yet to see an increase in funding, but he is confident that Duterte can convince Congress to increase its budget.

Aside from 911, Malacañang on Monday also opened the President's Hotline or 8888 for complaints against poor government services.

Dial 8888, 911: Gov't opens complaints, emergency hotlines