Emergency numbers in the Philippines
Free from any phone, including one with no SIM card, no credit and no roaming.
If someone is in danger right now, stop reading and dial.
- 911 — The national emergency hotline: police, fire and ambulance.
112 works too. On mobile networks it is routed to local emergency services almost everywhere in the world, from a locked handset with no SIM card in it. If nothing else on this page reaches anyone, dial 112.
Helplines
What to know before you call
- · 911 is the national number and replaced the old 117 police line. English is widely spoken by operators, which makes this one of the more straightforward countries in the region to call for help in.
- · During a typhoon, the national weather service PAGASA is the source that matters — local rumour moves faster and is wrong more often.
- · Between islands, response time depends on the boat schedule as much as anything else. If you are somewhere remote and someone is seriously hurt, start arranging transport at the same time as you call.
Say your location first
Give where you are before you describe what has happened. A call can drop; an address already spoken still gets help moving. Read the town, then the street or the landmark, then the building. If you have coordinates on your phone, read those out — they work regardless of language.
Questions
- What is the emergency number in the Philippines?
- 911. It is the national emergency hotline for police, fire and ambulance, and it replaced the older 117 police number.
- Does 911 work in the Philippines the same way as in the US?
- It is the same three digits and the same idea — one number for all emergency services. Response times vary a great deal between Metro Manila and the smaller islands.
- Do Philippine emergency operators speak English?
- Generally yes. English is widely spoken and is one of the country's official languages.
Keep these without a connection
Every number on this page is also stored inside the EddyTrip app, so it opens with no signal at all. It shows your GPS coordinates — a phone reads those from satellites and needs no data — and can send them by text message, which needs a SIM but not a network connection.
Other countries in Southeast Asia
Published by EddyTrip, operated by a company registered in Phu Quoc, An Giang, Vietnam. These numbers were compiled from nationally published sources. We do not list hospitals, clinics or private ambulance services, because an address we cannot verify is worse than none at all in the situation this page is for. If a number here has changed, tell us at support@eddytrip.com and we will correct it.