Last May 14, 2007, everyone in the Philippines had the day off as they cast their votes for the 2007 Midterm Election. And, according to various news reports compiled into one sweeping article, SMS was used to send out "black propaganda." Several voters were bombarded with text messages alleging pay-offs, irregularities, vote-buying, and other supposed badness.

It's not surprising that the candidates resorted to personal attacks and mudslinging. That's the name of the game in politics, especially when you're trying to survive into a colorful multi-party political system like the Philippines'. What's more irritating is the fact that these people are becoming aware that they can peddle their dirt to a wider audience--thanks to the technology that powers smartphones and PDAs. They get to waste the time and inbox space of more people.

In other words, dear readers, this is another reason why service operators should work together with content providers and users to create an anti SMS-spam system. Besides, these politically-charged texts are just a waste of time. I hardly think a voter would suddenly change their mind just because of an SMS message they received on election day. Right?