TaRSIER 117: Saving Lives

On a normal late afternoon in the city and around Bohol. School kids with their coterie, leisurely walk towards home, school bags and lunch boxes dangling. Tricycles whir by noisily, moving slower than they sound. The city birds sitting lazily on the power lines remain, unflustered.

Meanwhile, at a small room tucked behind the Governor’s Mansion, telephones buzz off every so often, the phone operators, prompt and sharp, quickly answering: “TaRSIER 117. What’s your emergency?”

At the other end, long silence and some hushed “oops”. Or, flustered replies: “Sorry, wrong number.” That’s a good sign. All’s well. No one’s in grave distress.

The Telecommunications Unit of the Telephone and Radio System Integrated Emergency Response 117, with the Bohol-apt acronym TaRSIER 117, receives at least 20 calls a day. The first liners of the operations center that coordinates emergency response mobilization throughout the province, the agents take emergency calls and direct these to appropriate agencies, the coordination beginning from the moment the call is answered up to the proper action and even follow-through activities, where needed.

Launched March this year, TaRSIER 117 is Bohol’s response to RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act. TaRSIER 117, then, is part of the greater Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council which deals with the greater concern on public service and maintenance of peace and order, including the immediate provision of aid and assistance to the victims of natural or manmade calamities. TaRSIER 117 has direct links with response units from local and national agencies and has forged partnerships with various private sector and volunteer organizations.

TaRSIER 117 is mainly coordinative. Though, it has an Emergency Response Unit with a ready ambulance, on standby, 24/7, as with the Rescue and Retrieval Team,  the whole TaRSIER 117 team, for that matter, it is mainly a call and command center that receives calls and dispatches the appropriate response to any emergency wherever in the province.

If you know the US’s 911, that’s what the TaRSIER 117 aspires to be.

And exactly, in addition to their usual functions, the TaRSIER 117 team is doing aggressive promotion to keep the numbers 117 glued into every Bol-anon’s head, young and old – borrowing, the Ghostbusters ditty, “if there’s something wrong in your neighborhood, who’d you gonna call: TaRSIER 117”.

The case of the Tubigon ferry disaster, for instance, TaRSIER 117 chiefly coordinated the medical and rescue operations of the whole incident.

TaRSIER 117 is very much equipped, as long as someone makes that 117 call.

TaRSIER 117 currently has three units: (1) Communications Unit, which handles incoming calls and dispatches or contacts the appropriate agency to respond to any emergency; (2) Emergency Medical Unit, which, equipped with an ambulance and personnel trained in emergency primary care, responds to medical emergencies within its area of responsibility; and the (3) Rescue and Retrieval Team, that which responds to search, rescue and retrieval or evacuation incidents. They are constantly upgrading to give better services. The team also gives technical trainings to other quick response units.

But, it seems that quick thinking and intelligence, still goes a long way. One call, for instance, the team relays, had them scratching their heads. The distress call was for a quick response to someone “possessed” or in local parlance, “nasudlan”.

Of course, TaRSiER 117 does not say “no” to any emergency situation. The emergency medical unit was deployed to the location, to find that, indeed, the person concerned had a psychological condition, but then upon further evaluation they discovered a deeper cause, which prompted them to direct the case to an appropriate agency. #

Pictured from L-R: Members of the TaRSIER 117 Emergency Medical Unit Danilo A. Rañola, Mark Sidney Du Galia, Mary Morene Chatto, and Rizalino C. Gahit.

 (This article also appeared in LifestyleBohol of The Bohol Chronicle on September 11, 2011.)