Why Globe will charge additional P5 for 911 calls

MANILA - Globe Telecom on Wednesday said it will charge an additional P5 on phone calls made to the 911 hotline.

According to lawyer Froilan Castelo, Globe Telecom's general counsel, the additional charge is meant to discourage prank calls, as suggested by the government.

"As suggested by the government to discourage prank calls, we would also like to inform our customers that those calling the hotlines will incur regular voice charges plus an additional P5/call for those calling the 911 hotline," he said in a statement.

The telecommunications giant assured the public that it is ready to transmit voice calls to government hotlines.

"Globe Telecom is ready to transmit voice calls for emergency hotline 911 and complaint hotline 8888 on August 1, as directed by the government. We are also expediting migration of our system to immediately enable transmission of SMS or text messages thru 8888 and we are confident that we will be able to achieve this target within the timeframe of 30-45 days given to us by the government," the statement said.

Malacañang earlier said it will launch its citizen complaints and emergency hotlines in August. 

According to Palace communications chief Martin Andanar, two hotlines will be provided for Filipino citizens: 8888 for complaints and 911 for emergencies.

Andanar said the 911 hotline will replace the current 117 emergency hotline.

"We're launching it this August, the 8888 plus the 911. The 117 now should be beefed up to become 911,'' he said.