Azurin orders all PNP personnel to register SIM cards

Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, Jr., chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered on Saturday, Dec. 31, all uniformed and civilian employees of the police organization to sign up for the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration in the soonest possible time.

The SIM Registration Act, or the Republic Act 11934, has long been advocated and pushed by the PNP in Congress, starting at the height of the bombing activities wherein local terrorist organizations would use cellphone-detonated bombs.

It was finally passed into law on Oct. 10 this year and the government has started its 180-day implementation on Dec. 27.

"As Chief of the PNP, I am directing all 227,000 PNP officers and rank-and-file to sign-up for the ongoing mandatory national SIM registration. I am also directing PNP DICTM (Directorate for Information and Communications Technology) to monitor the compliance of our personnel for this purpose," said Azurin.

Azurin also urged the PNP uniformed personnel and civilian employees to encourage their families to do the same.

"I encourage as well all the force multipliers of the PNP and the civic sectors to join hands in ensuring the success of this national objective to keep our telecommunications secure and beyond the reach of criminal elements," he said.

Azurin emphasized the need to follow and implement the law, especially that criminal elements are using prepaid cards in various online scams.

Subscribers have been also complaining of spam messages from prepaid SIM cards, most of the messages come with a link that enables hackers to steal essential information from netizens.

"Over the years, new threats of crimes involving technology have emerged and victimized citizens thereby creating some sense of insecurity in all our cyber transactions. Criminal elements have even entered the privacy of personal communications to advance their illicit motives," said Azurin.

"Through this timely and relevant legislation, we are closing all windows of opportunity for criminal elements to take advantage by soliciting the immediate compliance to the law of all mobile phone users," he added.