Three-minute response time

The latest directive from Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Rommel Francisco Marbil requiring all policemen on duty to respond to 911 emergency calls within three minutes evoked a fond memory on a very funny police joke. The joke originated from a highly decorated police officer who became a politician after retirement from the uniformed service. But after his first jump into politics as a congressman, he was recruited to join the Cabinet of the late president Fidel V. Ramos (FVR).

By way of setting the tone of his joke, please allow me to briefly trace his rise to the national scene before he made this joke. He first got elected in 1992 as representative of the 2nd District of Surigao del Norte. He “was so loved, respected and trusted by his constituents that they re-elected him in 1996 unopposed.” However, his second term was cut short when he was appointed by FVR to become as his new secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

In 1998, he became the first police officer who became a member of the Upper Chamber of Congress.

If you hadn’t guessed it yet, he was the late senator Robert Z. Barbers. Barbers delivered his funny antics at the launching of his senatorial bid along with 11 other candidates in the Lakas-CMD-led Senate ticket. Barbers and the rest of the senatorial wannabes were to deliver their individual brief remarks during the party convention led by FVR and held at the defunct Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City.

Barbers was certainly not a glib talking politician. In fact, he had a lisp but this did not diminish his command of the language. His exploits as a law enforcer spoke volumes about his outstanding service as a police officer. Starting as a patrolman, Barbers rose from the ranks and came to be known as one of Manila’s finest police officers. As a matter of fact, busting crooks and solving criminal cases had gained for him numerous awards and commendations during his 27 years as a law enforcer.

He was adjudged for three consecutive years as one of the Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) from 1986 to 1998. He collected medals of merit and gallantry and commendations and letters from the State Department of the United States and various embassies; and he was the first and only Filipino Golden Service Awardee for Outstanding Law Enforcer in Asia given in New York in 1991. The list could go on and on.

So when it was his turn to “sales talk” himself as a senatorial candidate, Barbers drew from his own experience as a policeman. He claimed among his bragging rights having met with the top cops around the world at international conventions. Remember, Barbers was talking at the podium with FVR among his audience, seated behind him on stage. As we all very well know, FVR once headed the PNP’s forerunner organization, the Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP).

Per Barbers' account, the police chiefs of Russia, the US and France were telling him about their respective efficiency and speed in response time to emergency calls for police help. The Russian police chief supposedly bragged: “In Moscow, our politsia arrive at the scene of the crime within 10 minutes after the call from the police dispatch comes in.”

“You’re too slow,” the American police chief retorted. “In America, our cops can respond to 911 calls within five minutes.”

“That’s much slower than us in Paris,” the French police chief butted in and touted: “Our French Gerdanmerie can arrive within three minutes.”

Narrating this obvious make-believe exchange, Barbers bellowed: “You’re all too slow. In the Philippines, our policemen are already on the scene right away.”

The Russian, American and French police chiefs all reacted in shock and in complete disbelief. In unison, the three top cops asked Barbers how the Philippine police can do this? While his audience, who were also in awe waiting for his reply to the fellow police chiefs, Barbers riposted with a poker face: “Of course we can do that in the Philippines, where the policemen are first on the crime scene because they are the criminals themselves!”

It drew loud guffaws from the audience. But not from FVR, who chomped on his tobacco in apparent displeasure at Barbers’ police joke wisecracking. Yes, it was a cruel joke. But this still rings true up to now.

The truth hurts but it hurts more our people who end up being the victims of these few bad eggs in the PNP.

But what is not funny at all are the pranksters and jokers who fool around with the 911 emergency hotline that the PNP receives daily. The E911 National Call Center of the PNP reported they are receiving an average of 30,000 calls a day, with only 700 or 2.33 percent considered as legitimate distress calls. It means 97.67 percent were either prank or drop calls.

As announced by Marbil on Sunday, this three-minute response rule was part of the PNP’s “commitment to enhancing public safety” and ensuring effective police assistance. “Our citizens rely on us during emergencies, and we must ensure that every 911 call receives the swift and effective response it deserves,” Marbil stressed.

Not to denigrate this three-minute response rule, it has been in place long before Marbil became the PNP chief. It was first implemented by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) headed then by Police Brig.Gen. Nicolas Torre III in May last year, who adopted this three-minute response time, or 3MRT for short. Thankfully, the QCPD had the full support of their local commander-in-chief, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, and the entire QC Council that bankrolled QCPD’s Integrated Command Control Center (ICCC).

Impressed by the QCPD initiative, former PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. – Marbil’s immediate predecessor – urged PNP regional commanders to replicate the ICCC. Aided by state-of-the-art technology, police patrol cars are prepositioned at fixed points or nearby in crime-prone areas. Thus, within three minutes response time, policemen can act on a 911 call to any reported crime incident.