Ruffy Magbanua STARTING today, ordinary folks may now call Malacanang through Hotline 8888. But sadly, this comes with a fee. This is to dispel the idea that one could be able to lodge a complaint directly to President Duterte with no extra phone charges. Open lines  directly linked with the Office of the President will be available but with corresponding fees, according to Globe. Globe, one of the service providers  of Project Hotline 8888, will charge an additional P5 per call on top of the regular voice charges for their subscribers calling the  hotline numbers 8888. That said, if one has to file a complaint, you must have extra coin in your pocket to be able to call Malacanang. Hotline 8888 is a  national citizens’ complaints number designed by Malacanang to receive feedbacks and  complaints from ordinary citizens who have no means to connect with the President. The idea to charge callers with certain fees, however, was suggested by the government to discourage prank calls. The proposed hotline will operate 24/7 and will be manned by at least 10 personnel trained to receive and record calls or complaints. Ordinary citizens can report any complaint via Hotline 8888.  Operators of the day will then redirect the complaint to the proper office or agency with no delay. President Duterte has vowed to implement Davao City’s world-class 911 emergency response center on a national scale by upgrading the equipment used for law enforcement and response. The emergency hotline has proven effective in Davao City, enabling the speedy response of police, firefighters, and medical personnel during emergencies. Citizens may now call the “8888” hotline to report corrupt officials, underperforming government personnel, and unfinished government projects. On the other hand, the current Patrol 117 emergency hotline will be replaced by a 911 number, which will link to the Nationwide Emergency Response Center. As mandated by the government, Globe is prepared to relay voice calls for the 911 and 8888 hotlines starting today, Aug. 1. Globe is also expediting migration of our system to immediately enable transmission of SMS or text messages thru 8888. This sounds a good idea of getting feedback from the people. To recall, this has been done in the past as one could notice in many of the public offices nationwide. In fact, public offices like the Bureau of Internal Revenue and many others  had put up complaint desks complete with phone numbers. But  when dialed,  these numbers just keep on ringing until someone at the other end of the line automatically says, “the number you dialed is out of coverage” or “the number you have dialed is incorrect!” Putting up  emergency/complaints desks are common in government offices. But sadly and to the dismay of many, these have become symbols of trickery and arrogance of people in government. To place non-working complaints desks in government offices are plain insult and mockery of people’s right to be heard. Good thing that the FOI is already in place although Congress needs to put finishing touches into it to make it work freely and effectively! On display for over the years, desks of this kind have become useless through time, and if we have to go by the number of complaints lodged, idled logbooks say it all. But will this Hotline 8888 yield positive results like in the Davao experience when implemented on a national scale? E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com