President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has approved the extension of the subscriber identity module (SIM) card registration period after the April 26 deadline.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. (Photo courtesy of Yummie Dingding/PPA Pool)
Shortly after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that the SIM registration had been extended for 90 more days, Malacañang also bared that the President approved the proposal on Tuesday, April 25.
"President Marcos Jr. approves the 90-day extension of SIM registration after the 26 April 2023 deadline," Malacañang said in a statement.
His approval came as a response to the proposal of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) for an extension of the SIM registration period.
The approval was made during a sectoral meeting presided over by Marcos in Malacañang on Tuesday.
The Palace added that the failure to register within the given period of extension will result to limited SIM services from the telecommunication companies.
The President also issued a directive to the DICT to make a public announcement on the matter.
As of April 23, 2023, more than 82 million SIMs have been registered or 49.31 percent of total active SIMs as of December 2022. There are currently 168,016,400 total number of active SIMs in the Philippines.
From the 82 million registered SIMs, more than 37 million are Globe subscribers, more than 39 million are Smart subscribers and more than five million are Dito subscribers.
READ MORE: SIM registration extended for 90 days – Sec Remulla