Cavite gubernatorial bet Abeng Remulla promises 911 app to address crime

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'The 911 app will have a centralized command center, which will be close to the provincial capitol, so we can monitor everything happening within the province,' Abeng Remulla says

CAVITE, Philippines – If elected governor, Cavite Board Member Francisco Gabriel “Abeng” Remulla said his administration would introduce a 911 mobile app to address crime and security in the country’s most populous province.

Remulla made the statement during Rappler’s election town hall in Bacoor titled “Make Cavite Liveable” on Saturday, April 12, after a member of the audience asked candidates about their plan to curb violence in the streets.

“It’s a 911 app for every Caviteño where within five to 10 minutes, there will be a respondent in your area,” Remulla said.

“It won’t be a barangay tanod (watchman) or a kagawad (councilor), but a police officer, or in the case of a fire, a fire truck will arrive, or an ambulance,” he added. “Hopefully, we’ll launch it by the time elections are over or by the end of this year.”

Remulla also said that the province is considering adding more CCTVs to determine which areas have frequent incidents and crime.

Details of the plan are scarce, but he said his uncle, former governor and now-Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, “laid the groundwork” of the project, which Abeng plans to continue.

“I don’t have the exact figures of how much it’s going to cost, and what we need to accomplish this. However, I do know the provincial government of Cavite has already acquired more than a thousand ambulances, 200 fire trucks, more police vehicles, for exactly this purpose, so that we can have this 911 app,” the younger Remulla said.

“Now, the 911 app will have a centralized command center, which will be close to the provincial capitol, so we can monitor everything happening within the province,” he added.

At the national level, Secretary Jonvic said in February that bidding for the country’s 911 emergency system, with a budget of P1.7 billion for systems operational and capital expenditures for this year alone, would begin in April.

Abeng is a relative newbie in elective politics, and is set to have a notable quick ascent to the capitol.

He became a board member only in 2023, after he was designated by the National Unity Party as board member of the Cavite’s 7th District.

At the time, he replaced his brother Crispin Diego “Ping,” who won the special election to replace the congressional post vacated by their father “Boying,” who had been chosen as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s justice secretary.

Prior to becoming a board member, Abeng’s credentials include being an executive assistant and chief-of-staff of his father when the latter was governor and district lawmaker.

Abeng’s 2025 gubernatorial bid is expected to be a walk in the park, as his three other opponents are virtual unknowns whose machineries are no match to that of the Remullas, one of the most influential families in Cavite.

Aside from Remulla, also present during Saturday’s Rappler town hall was Marvyn Maristela, who is seeking to represent Cavite’s third district in Congress. He is the ultimate underdog in that race, as his two opponents are incumbent AJ Advincula, and former Imus mayor Emmanuel Maliksi.

Asked the same question on how he would address crime in the province if elected, he said: “Maybe what I can do is to give funds to purchase additional police cars, lightning, everything that law enforcement needs to prevent crime.”

There is no publicly available year-on-year dataset on crime incidents in Cavite, but there were the usual reports of illegal drug seizure, arrest of drug lords and other wanted criminals, and murder incidents in the last three years.

Nationally, there was a 62% percentage-point decrease in crime rate during the first two years of the Marcos administration, compared to the first two years of the previous administration, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government. – Rappler.com