More than 60 percent of adult Filipinos believe that the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration proposal would help fight cellphone-related crimes, the latest survey from the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed.

The nationwide survey done face-to-face from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2, among 1,500 adults showed that 66 percent believe that the sim card registration would help fight crimes done through cell phones.

Net belief that SIM card registration would help fight crimes done through cell phones was a very strong +68 (76 percent believe, 8 percent not believe) among those who had already heard or read about it, compared to a strong +46 (57 percent believe, 11 percent not believe) among those who learned about it during the interview.

SWS also found that a week before Republic Act No. 11934 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act was signed into law 45 percent of Filipino adults were already aware of the SIM Card Registration Bill while the rest only learned about it only during the interview.

"The percentage of those who had already heard or read about the bill was highest in Metro Manila at 56 percent, followed by Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila) at 49 percent, the Visayas at 44 percent, and Mindanao at 32 percent," SWS said.

The pollster also added that among all respondents, the October 2022 survey found 60 percent (consisting of 32 percent strongly approve and 29 percent somewhat approve, correctly rounded) approval of the bill while 23 percent were undecided, and 17 percent disapproved it (consisting of 7 percent somewhat disapprove and 10 percent strongly disapprove).

SWS also mentioned that there are 48 percent who agreed that the SIM card sellers could be trusted to protect the private information of the buyers. This consisted of 18 percent strongly agree and 29 percent somewhat agree, correctly rounded, while 33 percent were undecided, and 20 percent disagreed (consisting of 9 percent somewhat disagree and 11 percent strongly disagree).