Retrieval of Text Messages - Possible or Not?

The Senate inquiry on the NBN-ZTE deal focused on the money allegedly given by Manny Gaite to Jun Lozada. Senator Enrile wanted to see the text message sent by Lozada to Gaite when the former was in Hong Kong. The message on Lozada's phone was deleted. Gaite deleted the message too but he sent it to his wife before deleting it hence, he was able to ask his wife to resend it to his phone. Lozada refused to attest to the veracity of the message, arguing that the message might have been edited since it was no longer the message from his cellphone. Senator Enrile suggested that perhaps Smart and Globe (Lozada's service providers) may be summoned to present the actual message sent by Lozada to Gaite. Enrile also mentioned that these service providers must be asked to authenticate the veracity of these messages. Both Lozada and Gaite agreed to draft a letter to Smart and Globe authorizing these companies to present the text messages before the Senate.

I don't know how this thing will work out. But I have some concerns regarding this matter.

As articulated by Senator Lacson, do these service providers really store the text messages that come from our cellphones? In this case, there is no privacy issue involved since the account holders gave their consent to the presentation of the messages. But if these providers do store these messages, then I am quite alarmed that without my consent, people other than the intended recipients can read the messages I send and receive.

Granting that the providers store the messages and that they can present it before the Senate, do we have any assurance that these messages were not tampered with? Remember that the phones of Lozada and his family were hacked with some messages deleted while the dates of the retained messages were changed. Lozada, who considers himself an expert in the telecommunication industry, also said that messages may be edited or even hacked and that anything which is stored in electronic form can't be 100% secure. So how sure are we that the messages to be presented by these providers are accurate?

As a friend puts it, and I hope he's wrong, we might be setting a dangerous precedent here. I guess we'll never know until the service providers issue their statements. In the meantime, I can only hope that the senators know what they're doing.