Veterans, netizens call on PVAO: Answer the phone

By: Frances Mangosing - 10 years ago

Screengrab from change.org

MANILA, Philippines—An online appeal asking for “dedicated personnel” to answer the hotline of the military’s veteran affairs has so far reached over 2,000 signatures.

The petition at Change.org, started by Noel Castillo of Batangas, aims to call the attention of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina for the agency to answer the calls of veterans more religiously.

There are 2,799 signatures to the petition as of 11a.m. Tuesday.

“Dahil dito sa pamunuan ng PVAO sa pangunguna ni Administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto G. Carolina (AFT) Ret, hiling namin na lagyan ng tao na sasagot sa kanilang hotline dahil laging walang sumasagot. Kahit anong araw na may opisina, ang telepono ay laging busy tone kahit maghapong i-dial,” Castillo wrote.

(To PVAO led by administrator Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, (retired) we are asking for personnel to answer your hotline because nobody answers. Any day of the work week, the phones are always busy even if we keep dialing the whole day.)

“Matatanda na ang mga beterano o ang naiwang mga asawa at ang magbiyahe upang pumunta pa sa office ay hindi madali para sa kanila. Ngunit may nagpipilit na makapunta dahil sa ang telepono ay hindi sinasagot. Kaya sana ay maging madali ang pagtatanong kung may taong nakatuon sa telepono upang sumagot sa mga katanungan,” he added.

(Our veterans or their widows are already old and traveling to your office is not easy. But there are others who insist to come because you do not answer your phones. It will be easier to make queries if there are people who will answer their call.)

The PVAO office is located at the military’s main headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Castillo also suggested PVAO to assign operators on its hotline after office hours to address the immediate queries of aging veterans such as hospitalization and other matters.

“Please be informed that the PVAO is currently undertaking the repair and rehabilitation of its telephone wires and the transfer of its cables to a new terminal to improve our communication lines to be able to serve you better,” the PVAO posted on its Facebook account last May 30.

This has caused the disruption in its operations, including its text messaging service.

“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the PVAO said.

“Rest assured that we are working to restore our telephone and internet connection within the first week of June 2014,” it added.

Those who wish to contact PVAO may call the Office of the Administrator at (02) 912 45256 and (02) 9124718.

INQUIRER.net tried to contact Carolina but he has not yet responded to calls and text messages.