Netizen slams Taguig mayor over emergency response

Xian Karl Armand Lopez

A netizen named Basty Askri on Facebook called out Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano over what she described as her failure to recognize the shortcomings of the city’s emergency response system, accusing the mayor of being “blind” to the realities faced by residents during medical emergencies.

The criticism surfaced following a recent incident in which a family member reportedly had to perform CPR on their father after nearly 10 minutes of repeatedly calling 911 before receiving a response  with the dispatcher telling them to “wait”.

The responding ambulance also allegedly arrived without enough personnel to immediately take over the lifesaving effort.

“At nung sumagot na, p*******a, puro “wait.” Rinig na rinig ko pa yung tawanan at chikahan habang may taong nangangailangan ng emergency assistance,” Basty said in her post.

The situation then worsened when the caller’s father suffered an attack, prompting her to perform CPR while waiting for the medical assistance.

“Ako mismo ang nag-CPR sa kanya. Ang tagal kong nag-CPR habang hinihintay namin ang ambulansya.” Basty said.

Basty clarified that the post was not made simply out of anger but to raise awareness of what she described as a big problem within the country’s emergency response system.

“I post this hindi dahil nagtatantrums ako or what. Pinost ko to dahil gusto ko marealize ninyo na dapat lang magalit kayo sa kabulukan na systema ng Pinas,” She added

In response to the incident, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said on Saturday that authorities are already investigating the issue.

The post by the caller ended by urging the public to recognize and question the system’s shortcomings in the emergency response system.