Certainly, money is a factor. Sending a message can cost as little as half a peso (0.9 US cents), an affordable option in a country where the minimum wage in the capital is just US$5 a day.
It is also a cheap way to spread propaganda.
Send a message to campaign members who have been instructed to forward it to friends and supporters. Within hours, thousands of mobile phones are bleeping.
In Internet parlance, it is "viral marketing." Mobile users often get messages from numbers they don't recognize, suggesting they are spread by people or computers sending them at random.
"Text messaging will be crucial in some local contests," says Ramon Duremdes Jr, whose company Mobile Arts makes SMS software.
As she tests out the software in the Mobile Arts office by sending messages to her own phone, Quiambao decides against the anti-Poe text she had been toying with.
Instead, she types what will probably be the least controversial message of the whole election: "Vote wisely."
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