One of the traditions of the MassKara Festival is the jamming of cellular signals for around four hours during its highlight, the street dance and arena competitions. This measure that is part of the security theater affects most of Bacolod City, and is something that everyone affected tolerated because there is essentially nothing they can do about it once the authorities declare it so.
This year, it would seem that there will be no signal jamming during MassKara, if Mayor Albee Benitez gets his way. If ever he overrides the plan of the police, that should be a good thing because in this day and age, depriving a metropolitan area of cellular signal for 4 hours, which more importantly comes with internet data, is like plunging the entire area into the dark ages (or the 1980s).
Such is the power of the mobile phone in our lives these days. We don’t use it just to make calls, we use it for almost every aspect of our lives now. Aside from communicating, we need cellular data for hailing a ride, cashless payments, banking, navigating a strange new place, working, and playing games.
During a major event with thousands of visitors and tourists, a consistent and reliable cellular signal is one of the most important services that needs to be provided. Cutting off that signal for everyone in the area, whether partaking in the festival or not, results in massive inconvenience for tens of thousands.
The most basic function of cellular phones is communication. Tourists or friends who want to meet up to partake in MassKara-related activities will be left without that if the signal is cut or jammed. If that happens again, the only option left for communication would be landlines, which nobody uses anymore, making it the equivalent of smoke signals and carrier pigeons.
Data-based communication via apps and group chats, which is the most common and convenient form of communication for most people these days, will be unavailable without cellular signal. Only those who stay in places with wifi will be able to check the messages and GCs, but once they stray out of wifi range, the messages will no longer be updated.
Getting a ride via ride hailing services is also out of the question during that time because the passenger would most likely be out of wifi-range when ride hailing, and more importantly, the drivers would have no signal either. And since the signal jamming is indiscriminate, meaning it will cover most of Bacolod and not just the festival sites, even those who want nothing to do with the MassKara highlights will have to suffer the lack of ride hailing services during that afternoon.
Another service that will be unavailable is cashless and credit card payments. This is because most payment terminals need access to the internet to process payments. Any vendor that is mobile and dependent on cellular data will not be able to process payments because they are essentially offline. Payment apps like GCash will not be available once the signal is jammed. So if that is going to happen and you are going into the dead zone, remember that cash is still king.
And since nobody uses a paper map anymore, tourists that rely on their smartphones’ map application will have to learn the old fashioned way of navigating in a strange city. Without that service available, they will either have to save a photo of a map on their phone, draw a map, or buy a map from a bookstore.
Those who have fiber-based internet service can opt to stay home to stay connected, especially those who have online work. However, for those unfortunate souls who only have LTE-based service, they are going to have to bear the blackout or go out of town to get a signal to do their online stuff such as work, banking, shopping, and communication.
If the cops are worried that terrorists are going to use cellular-based devices as triggers for bombs at festival sites, the fact that they’ve been turning to signal jamming for many years already means that any serious terrorist must’ve turned to non-cellular-based methods by now. Most terrorists evolve pretty quickly, but the rest of the population doesn’t, so at this point, signal jamming just makes life difficult for everyone else.
A couple of years ago, my sister suffered a heart attack right as the signals were being jammed during a MassKara festival highlight. No, she was not attending any festival event. She was just unlucky to be in Bacolod during that time. During those critical hours that we needed to call doctors, or contact the people who were with her when she had to be taken to the hospital, there was no signal. It was one of the most stressful situations I had ever been in, as we had to drive all the way to Talisay just to get a signal to call our Manila-based doctors who needed information so we could choose the best course of action as soon as possible.
That personal experience with the terror of unnecessary and indiscriminate signal jamming is why I really can’t get on board with any plan to do it again, unless the authorities really have confirmed and verified information on a credible threat.*
