CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The SIM Card Registration Act, or Republic Act 11934, ‘will require all SIM card users to register their personal information with telecommunications companies or telcos -- details which can be made available upon the request of a court or law enforcement agencies.’
The salient part of the law is that it seeks accountability of SIM card users and helps law enforcers to track perpetrators of crimes committed through phones.
However, if the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) is to be asked, the newly-passed law doesn’t seem to be the best solution to minimizing if not stopping crimes involving the use of cellular phones.
Len Olea, the NUJP secretary general, in a phone interview on Thursday, Oct. 13, made the statement when asked if the new law could help journalists and media workers who received death threats via text messages.
Olea explained that journalists received death threats not just in text messages, but also in the social media platform, stressing that the SIM Registration Act could impede the job of the journalists in dealing sensitive stories.
“We usually interview sources who want to be anonymous or their information be kept confidential. So, in the SIM Registration Act it would be a hassle because how do we get sources who are reluctant to reveal their identity,” Olea said.
When it comes to security, she said the law also puts risks on journalists as it might be used for ‘mass surveillance,’ which she said is already happening in other countries where all communications are monitored.
If it can have its way, the NUJP said the national government should prioritize the strengthening of the Data Privacy Act, instead of passing the SIM Registration Act.
“Those who received threatening messages via SMS (short message service), why not go after those scammers; the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) and PNP (Philippine National Police) should be able to trace their identities,” Olea said.
The NUJP is currently consulting the issue to some of the digital security group advocates and they have been tasked to wait for the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the SIM Registration Act.
The IRR will be crafted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), together with its partner agencies, within 60 days after President Marcos Jr. signed the measure on Monday, Oct. 10, said NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba in a televised interview over CNN Philippines on the same day.
In the said interview, Cordoba also assured the public that the privacy of the subscribers will not be compromised as mandated by the President.
The NUJP expressed hope that the government should temporarily hold the registration of SIM cards until the terms have already been clarified.
Since July 1, the NUJP has documented 17 cases of press freedom violations. These include two media killings, four cyberlibel incidents, two arrests over cyberlibel, one libel charge, one surveillance and harassment, two red-tagging, one denial of coverage, one physical assault, one death threat, and two online harassment.
The said media group, in a statement released on October 12, challenged the Marcos Jr. administration to denounce media killings and other forms of attacks on media, and translate his promise to protect journalists into concrete actions.