Emergencies app Batingaw receives good initial reviews on Google Play Store

Like a social media site, it requires people to open an account and post or "report" on incidents where they are. Users so far have been posting reports on weather and brownouts.

 

The app also provides a set of tools that one can use offline during times of emergency. These include a siren and a strobe light that can be used to attract attention, a flashlight, and a compass. It also has a "Help" button that allows users to send messages directly to OCD.

 

A set of safety tips in the event of a tsunami, flood, landslide, earthquake, fire, cyclone, storm surge, pandemic, terrorism, El Nino and La Nina, and crowd-caused disasters is also provided.

 

It also has an e-library where links to different government agencies' websites are easily accessible. 

 

It also provides links to all the Twitter accounts of said government agencies and a contact list with all their office phone numbers, including PAGASA, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

 

Batingaw, like may other apps, tries to be a one-stop tool to multiple disasters while remaining user-friendly. 

 

However, Batingaw still has some aspects to improve on. Its "I am safe" button, for instance, allows its users to send messages to their family and friends informing them that they're safe. But the users will have to memorize their emergency contacts' phone number since the app does not access nor connect to the user's contact list.

 

There is also the question of the app's dependence on Internet connection, which is not necessarily promised especially after a strong typhoon or earthquake.

 

Batingaw was developed by the OCD-NDRRMC in partnership with Smart and Tudlo Innovation.  — ELR, GMA News