The first vehicle that responded to the emergency call involving an elderly patient in Taguig City was not the ambulance dispatched through the Unified 911 emergency call, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic’’ Remulla clarified on Monday, Aug. 17.

On Aug. 16, a viral social media post by a man who sought emergency assistance through 911 for his ailing father raised issues regarding the lack of equipment on the responding ambulance.

Reports disclosed that the father of the uploader later died in the hospital.

According to Remulla, actor Basty Askri, who made the viral social post, issued a clarification and apologized for some statements in his original post, explaining being overwhelmed by fear, anger and grief at the time while trying to save his father’s life.

Previously, Askri claimed that after struggling to get assistance through 911, an ambulance arrived without an automated external defibrator (AED) and adequate equipment, leaving him to continue performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on his father.

“I initially blamed some of the people involved because I genuinely did not understand what was happening at that moment,” Askri said in a new post.

Askri noted that the first vehicle that responded was from their barangay, specifically a patient travel vehicle (PTV), thanking the responders for immediately assisting his family.

Based on his call history, Askri maintained that the 911 call ended at 12:18 p.m., while the 911-linked ambulance called him at 12:38 p.m. or 20 minutes later, asking for the patient’s location.

However, Askri pointed out that “by then, they had already brought his father to the hospital through barangay assistance.’’

He explained that they can no longer confirm whether the 911-linked ambulance eventually reached their residence.

Askri has refrained from making further assumptions, stating that “they will allow the authorities to determine whether there were failures or delays and what needs to be improved in the system.’’