House bill penalizes prank callers to emergency hotlines with jail terms, fines

by Raymund Antonio, Manila Bulletin

Prank callers to emergency hotlines may soon face jail time and fines if the proposed measure of Parañaque 2nd District Rep. Gus Tambunting becomes law.

House Bill 3851, or “An Act Penalizing Prank Callers to Emergency Hotlines,” filed on Aug. 22, 2022, recognized “the inherent nature of having an accessible nationwide hotline by providing penalties to persons who will intentionally make mischievous and malicious calls that will spoil the government resources and make ridicule them for their benefit/reasons.”

“An emergency hotline should be able always accessible, free from interruption, and seamlessly receive emergency calls to save lives for those needing it at a crucial moment,” the explanatory note said.

“To uphold the reliability and integrity of this public service, this legislation is proposed to forbid and penalize prank callers for irresponsibly alarming the emergency hotline,” it added.

Any person who would be found to make prank calls to emergency hotline numbers should be held liable with the following penalties: arresto menor, or jail time of one day to 30 days, and a fine of P5,000 for the first offense; arresto mayor, or jail time of one month and one day to six months and a fine of P10,000 for the second offense, and prision correccional, or six months and one day to six years, and a fine of P20,000 for the third and succeeding offenses.

The explanatory note cited Memorandum Order No. 07-07-206 issued by the National Telecommunications Commission and Executive Order No. 56 that assigned emergency hotline 911 as the nationwide emergency answering point, replacing Patrol 1197.

“The government is duty bound to serve and protect the people and it is expected that this crisis hotline is used appropriately by the public,” the bill said.

The proposed measure defined a prank call as “a mischievous or malicious telephone call made to trick or fool someone to annoy, abuse, threaten, harass, or solicit any comment, request, suggestion, or sound which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, or a call intending to make false requests or false alarm of an emergency, knowing the report or information or alarm to be false.”