A texting gadget for poll sabotage

On election eve, a candidate can send out a text message — untrue, of course — that his opponent has withdrawn from the race. The victim won’t have a chance to belie the black prop.

Travelers to Boracay paradise island must enter through its gateway, the modest Port of Caticlan on mainland Aklan. There one buys a ticket for a short, safe ferry crossing. The waiting is convenient, in an air-conditioned hall with clean restrooms. The queue to loading is fast and organized. The P200-fare includes boatmen and fuel, facility and equipment upkeep, and environment tax.

Travelers to Cagbalete Island must take a boat from poblacion Mauban, Quezon. There, the “port” charges P180 for boats that never leave on time, fee for a terminal that does not exist, and tax for the island it’s meant for but never benefits from. That is the complaint of the very townsfolk of Mauban, who wonder how the municipio ever found the gall to stick ‘em up with the new port charge. Angry comments are piling up in the e-group, “Progress for Mauban.”

Boracay’s success story as a world-class island resort should be replicated wherever possible nationwide. But shallow copycatting is not the way; serious development planning is.

Meanwhile, Mauban citizens can ask explanations from their mayor, vice and councilors, who are duty-bound by anti-graft laws to reply. For the “port” to operate and charge fees, there must be a clearance from the Dept. of Transportation and Communications. The collections are subject to state audit.

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Junk texts are proliferating of late. Mobile phone holders would receive at least three a day, enticing them to buy a sleek home, or borrow instant cash at low interest, or taste-test new eats. All are pesky. Whoever is advising amateur marketers that junk texting is effective to sell wares is fooling them. To begin with, recipients of such texts get irritated that some snake-oil salesman has them in his directory. Once pissed, they curse the product being peddled.

Here are samples, the latest from over a hundred recent receipts, slightly edited to show my annoyance, but retaining real names and phone numbers:

• From (0926) 5939592: “Haunted condos, Zinnia Towers. Reply to (0917) 3846317”,

• From (0905) 8723445: “Quick loan; quicker collection. Call Jessa (02) 3812161”; and

• From (0916) 7708147: “Manure-soaked wheat grass. Call (02) 2681318.”

Some of the junk texts are outright scams. You can smell them from afar. Some seem cheap. Others must have come from Aman Futures or some such Ponzi pyramiding. Like (verbatim):

• From (0926) 1264759: “Joy Lacorte Phil. Prudential claim your prize now (02) 7551532”;

• From (0906) 5593015: “Musta na kayo dyan. E2 na new roaming # ko. May padala akong package, bka next wik dyan na un. Ingat. Send load P10 lang”;

• From (0930) 8777891: “Congrat’s ur SIM# had won worth of P950,000 thru Electronic Raffle from Pres. Benigno C. Aquino Charity Foundation. With Bangko Sentral ‘Handog Pangkabuhayan’. To claim your prize pls call me now. I’m Atty. Leo S. Canoy from BSP Info Dept. Per DTI# 0432 S’2012.”

All those junk texters you can text back, to demand that they quit pestering you. Usually they won’t, and may even flood you with more junk and spam.

The most sinister of them all, though, is one that you can’t even text back to request to stop.

A recent receipt came from “Facebook,” a contact that is not even in my directory, so I found it strange that it came in as a name instead of a mere number. I checked the Message Details, and no number appeared. Its seemingly innocuous message went like this: “Click to see Nanding’s photos on Facebook: http://fbme/8tDI8ZIVjrlvOD Reply STOP to stop getting Facebook texts.”

Immediately I pressed the Reply key, but oddly the only options that popped up were Forward, Delete, and Move to Folder. This intrigued me enough to research.

Such text comes from a nifty gadget called “portable cell site.” The thingamajig does not need to be locked in on any service provider, like Smart or Globe or Sun Cellular. Any mobile subscriber just has to be within a five-kilometer radius of the portable cell site’s signal to receive a message.

The portable cell site does not need to be raised atop a 50-foot tower. Only the size of an average suitcase, it can fit it in a car or van luggage compartment.

Most portable cell sites are made in security-conscious Israel. Costing about P15 million there, P20 million in the Philippines, it is designed for use in emergencies. Imagine, for instance, an airport authority that can text all mobile phones of all persons in the terminal to leave because a strange box has been left unattended for the past 12 minutes. Or a barangay hall that can warn of a forthcoming mudslide. Or a schoolhouse that can advise all parents and pupils about suspension of classes because of floods.

But my naughty mind is working overtime today. I am imagining the use of a portable cell site for election purposes. No, I don’t mean for texting about a candidate’s campaign promises. I mean for black propaganda. As in:

All I have to do is load the portable cell site on my van on election eve and park near a cell tower. From there I can beep a message to all cell phone holders within five kilometers that my opponent has withdrawn from the race. It does not have to be true. My objective is to sow confusion in my rival’s ranks. He won’t have time to disprove the false texts. People will just believe it and not vote for him anymore. I can even send a follow-up text “from him,” advising voters to vote for me. Bwahahaha!

Oh shucks, why did I have to reveal the potentially evil functions of this new device? Now the government might crack down on it.

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