Emergency_Alert_Broadcast_in_Philippines

Emergency Cell Broadcast System (ECBS) is an alert broadcast system in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, designed to disseminate emergency alerts and warnings to mobile devices via cell broadcast services (CBS) Telecommunications companies and the

National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), formerly known as the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) until August 2011, is a working group of various government, non-government, civil sector and private sect ...

(NDRRMC) are both mandated and required by law to send free mobile alerts before disasters happen.

Background

The alert broadcast system was implemented in compliance with the Republic Act 10639, also known as the Free Mobile Disaster Alerts Act. The legislation was signed on June 20, 2014 and its implementing rules and regulations (IRR) were released on July 21, 2015. Initially only

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

or text messages were used to alert the public regarding emergencies and disasters. The Emergency Cell Broadcast System (ECBS) was launched on March 13, 2017 by the

and

Smart Communications Smart Communications Inc., commonly referred to as Smart, is a wholly owned wireless communications and digital services subsidiary of PLDT Inc., a telecommunications and digital services provider based in the Philippines. As of November ...

Information transmission capabilities

* 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 Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (, abbreviated as PAGASA , which means "hope" as in the Tagalog language, Tagalog word ''pag-asa'') is the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS ...

, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcs), and NDRRMC

Mechanism

Emergency alerts disseminated through this system are crafted by the

with inputs from other government agencies. The NDRRMC is limited on the number of characters it can use for each emergency alert message. A computer program made for the system is used to create and send the message. The system is location-specific, meaning a message is sent by designating an area where mobile phones within it shall receive the emergency alert. In contrast, the SMS-based emergency alert broadcast system is sent to devices through their mobile phone numbers which meant that the NDDRMC had to send emergency alert messages through telecommunications service providers. The process of the SMS-based system could take hours.

Incidents

On 3 April 2025, it was reported in

Masbate City Masbate City, officially the City of Masbate (Masbateño language, Masbateño: ''Syudad san Masbate''; ), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Masbate, P ...

that at 10:45 am local time, residents began receiving emergency alerts. These false alerts promoted members of the Kho family ahead of the

2025 Philippine general election The 2025 Philippine general election was held on May 12, 2025. During this midterm election, where the winners take office mid-way through the Presidency of Bongbong Marcos, term of President Bongbong Marcos, all 317 seats in the House of Repres ...

. The nation's two largest telecommunication providers denied any wrongdoing, and the incident is being investigated by the

National Telecommunications Commission The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC; ) is the telecommunications regulator of the Philippines. It is an attached agency of the Department of Information and Communications Technology responsible for the supervision, adjudication ...

References

{{Cell Broadcast System Emergency population warning systems Emergency management in the Philippines 2017 introductions