ILOILO CITY, June 4 -- The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) simultaneously activated four satellite command centers for the Unified 911 System, the country's nationwide emergency hotline, in a rollout ceremony in Leganes, Iloilo, on Thursday.

The activation addresses the language and response-time gaps by placing dialect-sensitive, locally staffed emergency coordination hubs in key regions across Luzon and the Visayas.

In Western Visayas, the command center has five work stations with 20 trained emergency communicators who can communicate in local languages, including Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a, as well as English and Tagalog (Filipino).

Since the activation, the center has already received 39,987 calls and respond...