After bus blast, govt eyes 'sensitivity orientations' for emergencies

The bombing of a bus that killed at least five people in Makati City on January 25 has prompted government to consider holding orientations to make the public more sensitive to victims of emergencies. Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the orientations will focus on having motorists and taxi drivers stopping to help victims instead of ignoring them, similar what many people did last Tuesday. "Kailangan ng orientation on the ground, sa tauhan ng MMDA at traffic police, kahit taxi at private vehicle. Kahit nakitang duguan hindi hinintuan. Kailangan magkaroon ng orientation at pagsasanay sa ordinaryong mamamayan lalo sa kinauukulan kung anong dapat gawin sa ganitong klaseng sitwasyon," Soliman said in an interview on dwIZ radio. (We have to have an orientation on the ground, for Metropolitan Manila Development Authority and traffic aides, and for taxi drivers and motorists. On Tuesday, many of them ignored the victims and tried to act as if everything were normal. We must train our citizens to act appropriately.) A bomb ripped through a Newman Goldline air-conditioned bus at the corner of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) and Sen. Gil Puyat (formerly Buendia) Avenue . The incident killed at least five people and wounded 15 others and authorities continue to track down the perpetrators. Citing complaints reaching her, Soliman said many traffic aides and MMDA personnel did not help victims of the blast. She said only the news crew of television station RPN-9 helped bring some victims to the hospital. The government's Twitter account commended the news crew "who took initiative yesterday to bring victims of the bus bombing to St. Luke's Hospital." Soliman said the sensiticity orientation may also help improve the government's response time to emergency and trauma situations. 'Hotline 117' operators Meanwhile, operators of the government's "117" hotline appealed to callers not to make prank calls. One of the operators, "Code 0042," made the appeal to a radio station that made a test call to the hotline Thursday morning. "Sa mga tawag, 98 percent are prank callers, karamihan nanloloko lang (Of the calls we get, 98 percent are prank callers)," he said in an interview on dzBB radio. He said most of these prank calls would come before dawn, with the caller cursing the operators. The operator said this was unlike in the United States, where a law penalizes prank callers. "Isa ito sa nakaka-hamper ng effective flow of operation, prank callers (These prank calls are hampering our operations)," he said. – VVP, GMANews.TV