BAGUIO CITY Councilor Edgar Avila is requesting telecommunication companies to issue free advisories during the rainy season.
In a resolution to be deliberated this week, the plea is for telecom giants Globe, Smart, PLDT, and Sun Cellular with other firms to issue frequent bulletins on weather updates, road conditions and other conditions during the rainy season or disaster times to their subscribers.
“During the typhoon season and similar disasters, information from government agencies such as the NDRCC, PAGASA, AFP, PNP and government, national and local is a necessity for our people as part of our disaster awareness program,” Avila said.
The alderman added majority, if not all of the residents of the city and the entire Cordillera Region are owners of cellular phones who subscribe to the telcos.
“The telecommunication firms have the technical capability to send messages, solicited or not to their respective subscribers,” Avila nots in his resolution.
Avila added part of the social responsibility of the telecommunication firms would be an information drive to update the public at large on through frequent bulletins on weather updates, road conditions and other conditions during the rainy season or disaster times to their subscribers.
The emergency SMS broadcast is in compliance with Republic Act 10639 or The Free Mobile Disaster Alerts Act mandating all telecommunications service providers to send free mobile alerts in times of natural and man-made disasters and calamities.
The mobile alert must be free and includes the following features; critical information that affected communities can use to prepare for and respond to disasters; contact information of authorities and responders in affected areas; Information on evacuation centers, relief sites, and pick-up points; up-to-date information provided by state weather bureau PAGASA, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, and NDRRMC.