Sen. Joel Villanueva on Monday urged the National Privacy Commission to look into the proliferation of "budol" spam texts containing job ads and other unsolicited offers as he warned of a possible breach of personal data of consumers.
Villanueva, who chairs the Senate labor committee, described the spam texts as the "forbidden fruit of a data breach or data sale somewhere" and a variant of fake news which can fool many people.
"This is the new budol in town," he said.
"In a nation where unemployment and digital disinformation are high, these kinds of messages can mislead many. Maraming kababayan po natin, lalo na ang mga naghahanap ng trabaho ang ma-si-swindle nito," he added.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Getting Too Many Spam Texts? We Asked Globe, Smart for Help
The senator called on the NPC to work with the National Telecommunications Commission to see how this intrusion of a person's privacy can be stopped.
He also asked government agencies to coordinate with telcos to prevent citizens from being victimized by "smishing," a form of text message phishing, where consumers are lured into giving away personal or financial information.
"Nasa area pa rin po ito ng consumer protection na trabaho ng gobyerno," he added.