Emergency NTC 117: NOT For General Public Use

Yesterday evening, on our way home, there was an accident between a “security” car and a motorcycle. The accident was on the corner of our street, and at first glance, it appeared as if the security car had run over the motorcyclist. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the car stopped on an incline, and it looked like it didn’t have the hand brake on, threatening to crush the driver a second time.

My sister and I were the only ones in the car, so my first instinct was to call Emergency NTC 117. I had my Sun Cellular mobile phone with me, and immediately tried to call for help.

That was by far the most idiotic choice one could ever make.

The phone kept ringing until I received a message saying there was no answer on the other end of the line. I called again, and this time, after a few rings, I received a busy tone. 4-5 calls later with the same results, my load ran out, and I never did got to call for help.

Just what kind of an emergency number is 117?! No answers, busy tones, and it eats up your load just for hearing a ringing/busy sound? I had at least P70-50 left on my credit, and I know this because I had just reloaded my Sun Cellular with a P150 regular load on August 25th, 2010; a load that would usually last me 45 days with a lot of credit left over.

Aren’t emergency numbers supposed to be answered quickly and efficiently? And most importantly, there is an emergency. Why should we have to pay for calling for public service help?!

Sadly, we didn’t see what happened to the motorcyclist and the crying child, who was presumably with the motorcyclist. He seemed unharmed, but was scared and crying all the same. We saw the security car on another road a few minutes later. Same car, but the motorcyclist was not there. The driver seemed to have fled the scene and kept his headlights off so that we couldn’t see his plate number.

I hope this blog post somehow gets on the news. I’m certainly posting this on twitter, plurk, and facebook. For shame, Emergency NTC 117! Charging for calls without even answering them is a disgrace.

Alas, only in the Philippines…