Do-not-text registry needed in RP, says solon

By Erwin Lemuel Oliva, INQ7.net

THE PHILIPPINES should follow the footsteps of United States regulators and come out with its own national do-not-text registry in order to further protect Filipinos from unwanted and unsolicited text messages, a lawmaker proposed Monday.

Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago said that Filipinos are still being bombarded with unwanted text messages despite steps taken by local regulators to discourage it.

The US regulators have established a national do-not-call registry that gives American consumers the choice not to receive telemarketing calls at home for five years.

The Philippine National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has come out with regulations on broadcast text messaging, which gives local consumers the choice not to receive broadcast text messages from local operators. Operators use broadcast text messages to push advertising and value-added services they offer.

"We haven't seen his proposal. But if it's going to solve text spam, I'm all for it," said NTC Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento told INQ7.net, reacting to Santiago's proposal.

Santiago said that local mobile telephone subscribers, including him, are still getting unsolicited text messages, despite initial steps taken by regulators to curb the sending of unsolicited text messages.

Santiago, vice chairman of the House transportation and communications committee, says that he receives three to four unwanted text messages each day.

"And it appears the messages increase shortly after one avails of a service, such as downloading a traffic report. Worse, in some cases, subscribers actually get billed for receiving uninvited messages," he added.

The Philippines has about 35 million mobile phone subscribers, making it the fifth largest mobile telephone subscriber base in Asia, next to China, Japan, India and South Korea.