There was a time when Davao City earned the sobriquet “Murder City.” This title was given by the now-defunct Asiaweek. In contrast, today, the largest city in the Philippines by land area is recognized as one of the safest cities globally.
Last year, Davao City was recognized by Numbeo as the safest city in the Philippines for 2024, boasting a safety index of 72.5. Numbeo is known as the largest global database for cost of living. Additionally, it serves as a crowd-sourced repository for quality of life data, including housing metrics, perceived crime statistics, healthcare quality, transportation standards, and various other indicators.
In Southeast Asia, Davao emerged as the third safest city – after Singapore and Thailand’s Chiang Mai. All three actually tied in rank as their safety index was 76.5. Below Davao were Malaysia’s Penang (68.7) and Vietnam’s Hanoi (64.0).
The website, travelsafe-abroad.com, has ranked Davao City as number one among the 10 safest cities in the Philippines. This was the review written on the website:
“Davao is considered one of the safest and most enjoyable places to visit in the Philippines. According to the crime index, which is a range of zero to 100 with 100 being the worst, Davao lands at just below 28. The safety index is on a scale of zero to 100 with 100 being the best according to tourists, Davao falls at 72.29.”
Davao City indeed has a long, long way.
With a land area of 224,000 hectares (approximately 7.8 times the size of Cebu and three times that of the entire Metro Manila), Davao City has a very low crime rate. “A great land mass cannot be considered as a hindrance to secure the city’s perimeter and give the 1.8 million Dabawenyos their security,” said a document obtained by this columnist. “The stability of peace and order in the city is manifested in the downward trend of the average monthly crime rate in every 100,000 persons.”
The document traced the low crime rate in the city to “the increased visibility of the police through the highly reliable 24/7 operations of the city’s Central 911.” It contends that Central 911 “has put into concrete actions the city government’s strong commitment to minimize, if not totally suppress, all forms of criminalities.”
That brings us to Central Communications and Emergency Response Center, or more popularly known as Central 911.
“(Central 911) has made a tremendous impact in ensuring peace and order to the city and keeping the citizens of Davao safe at all times,” the document said. “With a relatively high crime solution efficiency,” Davao City has become “the safest city in the Philippines and in the world.”
For the information of the uninformed, Central 911 was launched in September 2002 “to address emergency calls for criminal incidents needing police assistance.” With that, the Philippines became the only country outside of North America to adopt the system.
In the United States and Canada, dialing 911 from any telephone will immediately link the person to an emergency dispatch center — called PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) by the telecom industry — which can send emergency responders to the caller’s location in an emergency.
Davao City, however, is not the only city in the Philippines which uses 911 as the number to be dialed in case of emergency. The other city is Kidapawan in North Cotabato.
Since its inception up to 2013, Central 911 received over half a million distress calls or 543,240 to be exact. Each day, the center receives an average of 190 calls.
According to the document, Central 911 puts in place a fully integrated, computerized response system which enables authorities to locate where distress calls are coming from. The system even tracks how fast the police could respond to emergency calls.
“By dialing 911, residents needing assistance can immediately summon responders to the scene of emergency,” the document said. “Central 911 has simplified the process by integrating in one system all the government’s emergency response resources: ambulance, rescue technicians, firefighters, K-9 and the police.”
In an article I wrote for Reader’s Digest on medical emergencies some years back, the allotted time for emergency response is only six minutes. More than that, the person is most likely to die.
“As a doctor I take high pride in Davao’s 911,” said Dr. Richard Mata, a Davao-based physician. “In medical care, time is gold.”
Today, Central 911 now boasts of its capability to respond to almost any type of emergency. Aside from police services, it also responds to emergency medical services, urban search and rescue operations, fire auxiliary services, and K-9 units.
“The presence and the availability of a response mechanism resulted in increased awareness among the constituents and visitors of Davao City to report crime and emergency incidents which serves to mitigate or avoid further aggravating the situations and minimize the loss of lives and properties,” the document said.
Having traveled to various parts around the globe, I can confidently assert that Davao City remains the premier location for residence, tourism, and relaxation from the pressures of excessive work.
However, similar to other developing cities worldwide, Davao City is not immune to criminal activities — including terrorism — and the unfortunate consequences that arise during disasters such as typhoons, landslides, floods, and rising sea levels.
“These are the ever present threats that the citizens and government can only deal with through vigilance and preparation,” the document added. “It is in this light that the city government of Davao has placed a heavy emphasis on calamity preparedness and increased the notch in emergency response and crime prevention through the establishment of Central 911.”
