The mandatory Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration will still end on April 26, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said on Wednesday morning, April 19. In a statement, the DICT acknowledged the appeals of public telecommunication entities (PTEs) to extend the mandatory measure, but it stressed that no extension of SIM registration will be made at this point. This means that the registration will still end on April 26 as scheduled. Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card (Unsplash)
“[W]e encourage everyone to register to promote the responsible use of SIMs and provide law enforcement agencies the necessary tools to crack down on perpetrators who use SIMs for their crimes, consistent with the declared policy of the law,” DICT said. Unregistered SIM cards will automatically get deactivated after the registration period in accordance with Republic Act No. 11934, otherwise known as the SIM Registration Act. The measure, which was signed on October 10, 2022 and implemented on Dec. 27, 2022, seeks to curb and eradicate electronic communication-aided crimes such as text scams and mobile phishing. Data from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) showed that only 73,033,833 SIMs were registered as of April 17. This is equivalent to at least 43.47 percent of the existing 168,016,400 cards nationwide.