15/08/2026
Actor and nursing graduate Basty Askri says he was on the line with his father's life hanging in the balance. For nearly 10 minutes, he claims, no one picked up when he dialed the Philippines' emergency 911 hotline.
By the time someone finally answered, the ordeal was just beginning.
"Halos 10 minutes na akong tumatawag sa 911 pero wala pa ring sumasagot," Askri wrote in a Facebook post Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026.
The performer says he was repeatedly told to "wait" by the emergency operator and could hear laughter and background conversation while his father's condition deteriorated. Then his father went into cardiac arrest.
"Ako mismo ang nag-CPR sa kanya," Askri wrote — I performed CPR on him myself.
He says he continued chest compressions while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
When responders finally got to the scene, Askri alleges the problems only worsened. He claims the ambulance had no automated external defibrillator and lacked adequate emergency equipment. No one immediately took over CPR, he says, forcing him to keep trying to revive his own father.
"Ako pa rin ang gumagawa ng CPR," he wrote — I was still the one doing CPR.
His father later died.
Askri says he shared his harrowing account to make Filipinos aware of what can happen when emergency help is needed most.
"Galit ako dahil nararanasan ko mismo kung gaano kahirap humingi ng emergency assistance kapag ang mahal mo sa buhay ay nangangailangan nito," he wrote. "I am angry because I experienced firsthand how difficult it is to seek emergency assistance when a loved one needs it."
The allegations cast a harsh spotlight on the government's Unified 911 Emergency Hotline, launched nationwide in September 2025 to consolidate police, fire, medical and disaster services under a single number.
At the system's launch, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said Unified 911 was designed to deliver faster emergency response with a target time of five minutes.
That promise makes Askri's account particularly disturbing. If verified, waiting nearly 10 minutes just for a call to be answered — followed by further delays and an allegedly ill-equipped ambulance — raises serious questions about whether the country's emergency response system can deliver when a life is literally on the line.
Askri's allegations have not been independently verified. Emergency hotline authorities and the concerned local government have yet to publicly explain the circumstances surrounding the incident.
But for a son who says he desperately performed CPR on his own father while pleading for help, the failure he alleges is no longer an abstract problem with government services.
It became a matter of life and death.
