With a categorical support from Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senator Grace Poe emphasized anew the need for a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) Card Registration law to fight the unabated spam messages clogging cellphones and duping subscribers.

“The open support of the Senate President will be an impetus to bolster the passage of our bill," she said.

“Hackers, spammers, and phishers appear to get more sophisticated by the day and come up with even more believable scams. They are emboldened to do their dark deeds because they can remain anonymous,” Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, explained.

In a statement, Poe’s staff have received spam text messages bearing their names. The messages were invitations to click a link to play "slot game.”

Unwanted messages offering items, jobs, loans, among others have also been ceaseless.

Poe said no less than Senate President Zubiri nearly fell victim to robbery and extortion attempts through a series of text messages from individuals posing as local officials demanding cash from him.

This prompted Zubiri to reiterate his call for the speedy passage of the SIM Card Registration bill which was vetoed by then President Duterte.

Poe last month refiled her Senate Bill 99 to require public telecommunications entities (PTEs) to register SIM cards as prerequisite to their sale and activation.

All existing SIM card subscribers shall register for free with their respective PTEs within 180 days from the measure's effectivity. The registration period may be extended for another 120 days upon written request to the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Failure to do so will authorize the PTEs to retire the SIM card.

Poe’s bill prohibits the disclosure of information obtained in the registration process, except upon a court order, written consent of the subscriber or in compliance with the Data Privacy Act.

Breach of confidentiality by any PTE shall be meted penalties: first offense, a fine not to exceed P300,000; second offense, not more than P500,000; third and subsequent offense, a fine not exceeding P1 million for every offense.

The unauthorized sale of registered SIM cards shall also be penalized by imprisonment of no less than six years and/or a fine of P200,000.

As of March 31, 2022, Globe has 87.4 million subscribers while Smart has 70.3 million. Currently, Dito reported having 11 million subscribers.

“Each day without the law, someone gets victimized. Scammers spare no one. We must stop them in their tracks,” Poe pointed out.