Politicians Exploit Emergency Cell Broadcast System for Election Campaigning

In the lead-up to the 2025 elections, several politicians have reportedly been using the Emergency Cell Broadcast System (ECBS) — a tool meant for life-saving alerts — to push their campaign messages directly to voters’ mobile phones.

Why it matters:
ECBS is designed to deliver time-sensitive alerts during disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, and other threats to public safety. Misusing it for political promotion could desensitize the public to real emergencies, risking lives in the long run.

Multiple residents from a certain province have come forward, claiming they received ECBS alerts that mention to vote certain of politicians during the campaign period. The messages mimic emergency alerts — short, urgent, and impossible to ignore — but instead carry campaign-style content.

Unlike regular SMS or online ads, ECBS alerts do not rely on mobile signal or internet. These messages are broadcast directly to phones in a specific area, appearing as emergency notifications with sound and vibration — often startling recipients. The system is meant to provide immediate warnings for natural disasters, not political content.

So far, no candidate has publicly admitted to using ECBS for political gain. However, watchdog groups are now calling on the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to investigate the misuse and penalize those responsible.

The Comelec has yet to issue guidelines or sanctions related to this practice, but legal experts warn that it may violate laws on the use of government resources during the campaign period.

The misuse of ECBS raises bigger questions: Who authorized the access? Are telcos aware of the content being pushed through the system? And what safeguards are in place to prevent future abuse?

As the campaign season intensifies, citizens are urged to report suspicious ECBS messages to Comelec or the NTC. The integrity of emergency communications, they say, must not be compromised by politics.

Should government agencies tighten control over who can access and use the ECBS, especially during elections?