LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Nuisance calls will now be lessened at least in Sablan town.
In an ordinance penned by local legislators, persons making prank calls to emergency hotline numbers of government and private entities in the municipality may now be penalized.
The municipality of Sablan is planning to designate an emergency hotline number to enable any individual to report commission of crimes, disasters, calamities, and other emergencies that require immediate response.
With this, the ordinance will protect entities for rescue and emergency "from such senseless calls which result to waste of time, effort and energy."
Prank calls have been reported by emergency teams and are made either by telephone calls or text messages made or sent by any person to the emergency numbers, and are done solely for the purpose of making fun of such hotline numbers or sow confusion among emergency responding units.
The ordinance aims to monitor calls as they are recorded and properly identified through the registered owner of the landline indicating the address and location of the caller, while mobile phone users can also be identified if registered.