MANILA - Mobile content providers have withdrawn their separate petitions for a temporary restraining order (TRO) filed with the Pasig and Quezon City regional trial courts against a National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) order banning the sending of spam messages.

John Alonte, chief executive of G Gateway Mobile Phils. Inc. and spokesman of the association of value-added service providers, said they decided to withdraw their petitions after consulting with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and NTC Commissioner Ruel Canobas.

Alonte said the government officials "assured that the NTC would accord all content providers with proper due process."

"We are very grateful to Sen. Enrile and Commissioner Canobas as well as the other commissioners of the NTC for hearing our concerns and providing us with an opportunity to thresh out our key concerns on the memorandum circular (MC)," Alonte said, pertaining to NTC's MC 04-07-2009, which is essentially a blanket ban on mass sending of spam or unsolicited messages.

MC 04-07-2009 was issued in response to a barrage of complaints over vanishing prepaid phone credits attributed to "push messages" or those that content providers or mobile phone companies send out to subscribers with or without their consent.

The NTC's new order alarmed content providers such as G Gateway, particularly because it has a provision allowing the regulator to disconnect a content provider from the network pending investigation.

The order is set to take effect on Thursday.

Alonte said they are very supportive of the moves of the NTC against text spam as well as other issues relating to consumer protection.

"We strongly support the current thrust of both Senate and NTC to solve the problem in order to protect first and foremost the public interest," he said.

"We will continue our dialogue with the NTC and will provide our cooperation with the regulatory body’s ongoing efforts to protect the welfare of the general public," he added.