Use of emergency alerts in campaign slammed

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April 8, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The use of Emergency Cell Broadcasting System (ECBS) for political campaign has raised alarm.

Sen. Grace Poe said the ECBS is designed to issue alerts during emergency situations like typhoons, earthquakes and other public safety threats.

“The incident not only compromises the integrity of the emergency alert system, but may also pose threats to our safety and security as hackers may use this to broadcast fake news,” she added.

Residents from a certain province allegedly received emergency alerts containing a local candidate’s name for the upcoming May polls – an indication of the use of ECBS.

Poe pointed out that “concerned government agencies and telecommunications firms must seriously address this vulnerability in the system infrastructure to prevent further exploitation by those with evil intentions.”

“Without accusing anyone (of being) guilty, we hope candidates can rein in their supporters to campaign fairly and honestly, as we all want clean and credible elections,” she said.

Violation of public trust

Commenting on the matter, Bayan Muna chairman and former congressman Neri Colmenares said the use of the ECBS by unscrupulous political candidates is a “gross and dangerous violation of public trust.”

Colmenares, principal author of Republic Act 10639 or the Free Mobile Disaster Alerts Act, slammed the misuse of the emergency broadcast system.

“We created this law to save lives of the people in cases of disasters, not for use of the politicians for their campaign. This is a blatant abuse of a life-saving system and must be condemned,” he said in a statement.

Colmenares warned that the misuse of the ECBS undermines public trust in legitimate emergency alerts, potentially endangering lives in future disasters when people may ignore real warnings due to past abuse of the system.

“Every time this system is misused, it chips away at the credibility of emergency alerts. Come the next calamity, people might ignore them – and that could cost lives,” Colmenares said.

Bayan Muna, as well as other members of the Makabayan bloc, has called on the National Telecommunications Commission and the Department of Information and Communications Technology to investigate the matter, and for the Commission on Elections to penalize candidates found guilty of abusing the system. — Jose Rodel Clapano