MANILA, Philippines - Persons caught making prank calls to the Marikina City government’s rescue office will be fined P5,000, an official said yesterday.
Ronald Mejia, head of the city’s Rescue 161 department, said appropriate charges would also be filed against parents of minors making the prank calls.
He issued the warning following a series of prank calls made by “youngsters,” which cost his office thousands of pesos in gasoline because they responded to fake emergency help calls.
The callers kept on pestering his office from the morning up to almost midnight every day, Mejia said.
Mejia pointed out that City Ordinance 145, passed in 2006, calls for the P5,000 penalty to prank callers not only to Rescue 161 but also to the local police.
Mejia told parents that no one is exempt from the P5,000 fine once the calls are traced to their landlines or cell phones.