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BY Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
THE National Telecommunications
Commission (NTC) will regulate the use of short-messaging system, or
text, in the May elections.
Lucio M. Espinoza Jr., NTC chief
of staff, said his agency has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
to clarify guidelines on campaigning through text.
The Election Code, or Republic
Act 9006, enacted in 2001, he said, covers only paid advertisement
in print and broadcast. There is nothing about texting or
telecom.
He said the NTC does not intend
to prohibit campaigning by text, only to regulate it according to
Comelec rules.
The NTC, he added, also has
guidelines on spam text of unsolicited advertisement.
He said the agency wants to
finalize guidelines by February 13, the start of the campaign season
for senators and groups vying for party-list inclusion in the House
of Representatives.
The campaign season for
congressional, provincial and municipal and city offices starts on
March 30.
Massive campaigning through text
messages is expected. The telephone companies have promotional
offerings that will allow candidates and political parties to reach
millions of cell-phone users cheaply.
Meanwhile, a consumer advocacy
group TXTPower has asked the Comelec and the NTC to prevent text
spamming by parties or candidates who will use “text brigades.”
These text brigades could flood
cell-phone networks with unwanted political messages.
The Comelec is allowing
candidates to use text messaging as a campaign tool but they have to
follow the Comelec and NTC guidelines, which have yet to be
released.
A problem, which Chairman Abalos
admitted exists, is that it is almost impossible to go after
offenders because it is difficult to identify anonymous message
senders.
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