Manila, Sept. 11 -- The Philippine government launched Thursday the unified 911 emergency hotline that would provide faster and more coordinated responses to emergencies nationwide.

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla said the hotline, which replaces multiple local emergency numbers, would serve as the central point of contact for police, fire, medical, and disaster response services.

"We had 35 LGUs [local government units] with their own numbers, we had the PNP (Philippine National Police), we had the BFP (Bureau of Fire Protection). We have the other 200 numbers then we have 40,000 barangays, where the constituents would call first the barangay captain to call for help before they would cal...