It could be recalled that former President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed a bill requiring the mandatory registration of SIM cards of mobile phone users. At that time, Malacañang said that Duterte “did not agree with the social media registration,” which, to some experts, is a good move, as the lack of proper guidelines and definitions regarding this provision could “give rise to dangerous state intrusion and surveillance, threatening many constitutionally protected rights.”
The vetoed bill was the consolidated Senate Bill No. 2395 and House Bill No. 5793, which “mandates all public telecommunications entities to require the registration of SIM cards as a prerequisite to the sale and activation.” As explanation to the proposed law, one of the primary purposes is to “combat telecom fraud and eradicate phone-aided terrorism and criminal activities.”
Even with the veto, Malacañang then urged the next Congress to look into the bill further and encouraged the authors to “secure a safe environment online for all Filipinos.” Thus, news has come out recently indicating that various senators and representatives will be re-filing the bill with some amendments in the upcoming 19th Congress.
Senator Grace Poe, the original author of the bill, together with other senators such as Miguel Zubiri, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Roland dela Rosa, expressed their intention to refile the SIM card registration bill, noting that this is “not a band-aid solution, but a long-term deterrent to crimes such as text scams bombarded to mobile phone users.”
Under Poe’s bill, all existing prepaid SIM card subscribers with active services shall register within 180 days from the effectivity of the law. Telcos will be authorized to deactivate SIM card numbers that have not been registered within the prescribed period.
Despite efforts by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and telcos to warn the public against text scams and make them block or report the messages, Poe lamented that text scams have remained rampant, especially those coming from prepaid SIM card numbers.
In the House, four legislators led by Leyte 1st District Representative Martin Romualdez also plan to file a similar bill. In its note, it said that since the “affordability and accessibility of SIM cards have resulted in the democratization of mobile communications…having an unregulated SIM card market has also given way to several mobile phone scams. The cases range from simple text messages asking users to send cellular loads, to more sophisticated voice phishing methods, and marketing spams that are used to gain unauthorized access to sensitive personal information of unsuspecting mobile phone users.”
The lack of SIM card registration, the bill said, “makes it nearly impossible to trace the persons behind the text scams and hold them accountable for fraud, breach of data privacy, or other punishable offenses that they committed using an unknown mobile number.”
The motive of the proposed bill, at its core, is laudable. With the “power” given to SIM card users, a cellphone number should not be used for any form of fraud or crime. That is the ideal scenario, which is not happening with the thousands of cases reported to the NTC daily of fraud implemented using a SIM card number with an unidentified user. It is now the Congress’ call to once and for all unmask the perpetrators and make them face the call of justice.