Lapid proposes registry to decline spam

Senator Lito Lapid. INQUIRER.net file photo / Noy Morcoso

MANILA, Philippines — Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Unsolicited marketing calls and messages can be annoying. But thanks to a pending bill in the Senate, phone users and cell-phone service subscribers are ensured that their numbers would not be available to these callers.

Sen. Lito Lapid has proposed the creation of a “Do Not Contact Registry” where phone users and subscribers could have their numbers listed to signify that they decline to receive any marketing or commercial messages.

Inclusion in the registry would mean that telemarketers, promotional companies or other business entities would have to check the list to ensure that the individual they intend to contact is in it or not.

Annoying

In his explanatory note to the measure, Lapid noted that receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls and messages offering products and services for sale could be annoying.

“At times, they can be as irritating and as persistent that we receive a barrage of messages or we get calls almost on a daily basis. This has to stop. They consume our time and flood our phone inboxes,” he said.

He noted that the cybercrime law penalizes the sending of unsolicited commercial communication, but said enforcing it could be a problem as it was burdensome for a subscriber to report every violation.

Under the bill, any subscriber or user of a Philippine phone number could apply to the National Telecommunications Commission for inclusion or removal of his or her number from the registry.

Exemptions

The messages that could not be sent to the numbers in the registry include those that offer or promote goods and services, land or real estate, a business or investment opportunity, and the like.

Exempted are messages coming from a public agency to promote any program that is not for a commercial purpose; messages necessary to respond to an emergency that threatens the life, health and safety of an individual; and messages from an individual acting in a personal or domestic capacity.

Also exempted are messages to complete a transaction previously agreed to with the sender.

Violators would be punished with imprisonment of one to six months, or a fine ranging from P50,000 to P250,000, or both.