Bayan Muna hits late mobile disaster alerts

Militant partylist group Bayan Muna admonished giant telecommunication firms for the late disaster alerts on mobile phones during the height of heavy rains brought by the enhanced southwest monsoon.

“Bilasa na yung alert kapag dumadating. Sa halip na makatulong ay nakakainis yung nangyayari,” Bayan Muna Chairman and former Rep. Neri Colmenares, one of the authors of the Free Disaster Mobile Alerts Law, said in a statement on Sunday.

“Halimbawa kahapon (Aug.11) ay nagtext ang NDRRMC na 2 p.m. daw ay Red Rainfall warning sa NCR at Rizal pero 5 p.m. na dumating ang text. Kagabing 10 p.m. naman ay nagtxt din na 8 p.m. daw ay Red Rainfall warning pa din daw,” he noted.

Colmenares appealed to telco giants Globe and Smart to “improve their service especially since lives are at stake here.”

The former lawmaker explained that the law mandated text alerts to contain a description of the disaster.

“After the disaster the text should contain the location of relief distribution, but text messages do not contain important information as intended by the law,” he said.

Colmenares also warned the telco firms to “fast track their service or face another law suit on top of the case for the text refund on their overcharging consumers for interconnection charges.”

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), around 961 areas experienced flooding in Regions I, III, Calabarzon (IV-A), Mimaropa (IV-B), VI, X, CAR, and the National Capital Region on Saturday.

The rain was brought by the “habagat” that was enhanced by Tropical Storm “Karding” as it exited the Philippine area of responsibility in the north. /je