Pangasinan: Pangasinan's Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) has appealed to the public to refrain from making prank calls on the province's 911 emergency hotline. PDRRMO operations head Vincent Chiu, in a forum on Thursday, said they received about 60,000 prank calls out of the 500,000 calls made since the hotline was launched last year.

According to Philippines News Agency, most prank calls came from high school students, prompting the PDRRMO to coordinate with the Department of Education to address the issue. Chiu emphasized that legitimate emergency calls primarily involve vehicular accidents and fire incidents, to which their teams swiftly respond.

Chiu stated, "We are expecting more emergency calls on fire incidents, including grass fires this dry season." He highlighted the importance of providing details when making an emergency call, such as the nature of the emergency, the location, and the name and contact number of the person calling.

He further explained, "While the call is ongoing, we are already arranging the response with the given details." The 911 hotline is active across the province while three local government units are working on localizing the number in their jurisdiction.