The bill seeking the mandatory registration of all Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards in the country is making headway in the Senate again.
This, after Senator Grace Poe sponsored Committee Report No. 5, submitted jointly the Senate Public Services panel, committees on science and technology, banks, financial institutions and currencies, trade, commerce and entrepreneurship of Senate Bill No. 1310.
SB No. 1310 is a consolidated version of the various measures pending in the Senate that seeks to deter ill-intentioned scammers and criminals from further hiding under the shadow of anonymity.
“This bill is a concrete step towards making our telecommunications and digital system a safer environment for all, as had been the hope of the 18th Congress when it previously passed the measure,” said Poe in her sponsorship speech on Tuesday, September 13.
“We are not alone in wanting this kind of policy. Globally, the trend skews heavily in favor of SIM registration: A total of 157 countries have adopted laws that require mandatory SIM registration, including nations with the highest regard for data privacy rights,” said the chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, co-sponsor of the measure, said he is confident passage of the bill into law will help not only in crime investigation and help law enforcement agencies but also improve the government’s cyber-defense capabilities as well.
“These text scams and spams surpass a mere breach of privacy and safeguard from intrusions! This is already a threat to our mobile and cyberspace integrity and safety that has been going on for two decades already,” Estrada said, also in his co-sponsorship speech on the bill.
Estrada noted that as early as 2001, law enforcement agencies have called for the institutionalization of the registration of prepaid SIM cards as a crime prevention strategy.
“I am fully on board with this urgent and important mission,” he said.
“It is high time that we give SIM card registration legislation a chance to be enacted into law to save lives and prevent these swindlers from continuously victimizing unsuspecting individuals by sucking in their hard-earned money to deceptive offers from text scammers,” the lawmaker added.
Congress has already passed the proposed SIM Card Registration Act during the 18th Congress but then President Duterte vetoed the measure.
Martin Andanar, Duterte’s spokesman at that time, said the President was “constrained to disagree with the inclusion of social media in the measure, without providing proper guidelines and definitions.”
Poe said she is optimistic of the bill getting the Marcos administration’s approval this time.
In fact, she said the word “card” in "SIM card" has been dropped "to make way for newer types of SIM that are not contained in card form, such as eSIM."
“We are future-proofing a regulation that deals with technology to ensure that this law will adapt to the creative ways of fraudsters,” Poe said.
She underscored that the bill institutionalizes the necessary measures to guarantee data protection and privacy of citizens.
Under the bill, telecommunication companies or Telcos would be tasked to keep the submitted information safe and secure in a centralized database.
To ensure the protection of consumers’ data and to keep the Telcos in check, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is mandated to perform an annual audit of the telcos' compliance with the proper information security standards.
“Heavy emphasis is placed on the absolute confidentiality of submitted information, and disclosure is only allowed upon a court order or subpoena, or with the consent of the subscriber, or in compliance with the Data Privacy Act,” Poe said.
“Any breach of confidentiality will be punished,” she added.
Though the measure is "not the panacea to all the ills and evils proliferating in the telecommunications system," Poe emphasized that its enactment into law would certainly be a step forward in addressing rampant SIM-aided fraud in the country.