Technobiography

Fight Txt with Txt: Preventing protest havoc @ MRT

March 10th, 2006 | by ka edong |

Got this message via SMS from a number that I don’t recognize:

Hi All! for d wkly black friday silent protest, come join 2day’s 6pm MRT ride. W frnds, wear black, get on MRT at 6pm nd head to ORTIGAS STATN. We’ll convrge der, stay a few mins, let 7 trains pass den peacefuly board nd dsperse bfore 7pm. Tweak ur fri! C u der, bring ur smiles & pls pass 2 mrt-riding frnds

This is happening today.
I feel the organizers of this silent protest meant well.
But I think they do not realize what kind of havoc this can create!

The Ortigas MRT platform isn’t designed to accommodate in influx of many hundreds of people at one time. The platform size isn’t enough for an abnormally huge crowd.

Consider also the kind of crowd that will attempt to board the trains after the protest. It could become a huge crowd and could be very unsafe.

The more people join in this protest, the worse it could get at the MRT station this afternoon.

If you received this same message, please don’t pass it on. I personally discourage people from joining this protest for safety reasons. I think it was irresponsible for the organizer to create such a scenario.

Fight Text with Text

I forwarded the message to MRT officials via SMS using the following format.

Text “MRT comment [message] [name]” and send to 2950

The reply from 2950:

Your message has been sent to the MRT Public Relations Officer. Thank you for using MRText 2950.

Sent a similar message to MMDA with this format.

Text MMDA [ur message] and send to 2947 for Globe and 288 for Smart

The reply from 288:

Sorry, d keyword you have typed is not recognized by the system. Please check the spelling and try again. Reply with LIST for other services.

Sent the same alert to e-mail addresses: lrtamain@lrta.gov.ph, chairman@mmda.gov.ph.

In all, I hope the officials can help ensure safety of the crowd during the silent protest this afternoon.
I hope the protest organizers take responsibility for the safety of the crowd.

Ingat lang,

ka edong