MANILA, Philippines — The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the telecommunications companies and even the camp of former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. denied sending the spurious “emergency alert.”
So who sent it?
Some members of the media covering the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) at Sofitel Garden Hotel in Pasay City received the emergency messages shortly before noon on Wednesday. But it was not the usual NDRRMC alert warning about natural disasters like earthquakes or heavy rainfall.
Instead, the “emergency alert” message was a rah-rah from the Marcos campaign script in Filipino, a chain of slogans and exhortations repeating his initials ‘’BBM’’ which the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos used in past elections.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the NDRRMC said they did not send the messages, and asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to investigate.
‘Ill-advised, at best’
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said election laws do not penalize the use of emergency channels for campaigning.
“Needless to say, the use of the emergency alert system for political propaganda purposes is ill-advised, at best,” he told reporters through Viber.
NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal said the agency uses the emergency mobile alerts system to send out timely and area-specific warning messages about natural hazards.
“Emergency notifications issued today by the NDRRMC are only about rainfall warnings due to the current weather disturbance and nothing else,” he said.
“We are consulting with our telco counterparts about this incident and so far they have informed us that such a message did not come from them. We trust that the National Telecommunications Commission will be looking into this matter,” Timbal added.
Demolition job?
Marcos’ camp also disowned the text blast and said it could be “among the many demolition jobs unleashed by those who want to frustrate’’ Marcos’ candidacy.
Marcos’ chief of staff Victor Rodriguez said Marcos and his family also got the alert.
“We should not tolerate any group or groups’ underhanded moves to trivialize this very special tool meant to forewarn every single Filipino of an impending, actual or post-disaster event or scenario,” Rodriguez said.
NTC deputy commissioner Edgardo V. Cabarios confirmed that the messages did not come from the telco companies or the NDRRMC but possibly from “bad actors’’ using unregistered and thus illegal radio frequency equipment.
He said these messages may have originated from illegal radio frequency equipment or devices that have a range of a few hundred meters to a kilometer and are small enough to fit inside a car.
“The commissioner gave an urgent directive to our regulation branch so we can expect a report soon,” Cabarios said, referring to NTC commissioner Gamaliel A. Cordoba.
He said the NTC is now conducting an investigation and might ask law enforcement agencies to track down the portable sites.
Agencies such as the NDRRMC and telcos have legal access to portable cell sites, which are typically used to augment mobile services in areas hit by calamities.
Democracy.Net.Ph co-founder Pierre Galla said such devices were essentially cell sites “not within the legitimate management and control of a telco.”
“It pretends to be legitimate telco equipment, but it is not,” Galla said, adding that some devices have surveillance capabilities, making them popular with law enforcement agencies.
‘Hijack’
House Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Zarate and Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares called on the NTC and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to investigate and explain how the Marcos camp supposedly was able to “hijack the emergency alerts frequency” of the government.
Colmenares, principal author of RA 10693, said: “If this is true, they are not only guilty of ill-gotten wealth, ill-gotten airwaves too.’’