Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy on Tuesday, April 25, denied that low turnout was the reason for the extension of the SIM registration as he lamented the “bad habit” of Filipinos when it comes to doing things “at the last minute.”
(From left) Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan John Uy (PCO photo)
During a Palace briefing after his meeting with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the official said that “low turnout was not the main reason for extension” since there were already 82 million SIM registrations out of 168,016,400 total number of active SIMs in the Philippines.
“Clearly, matitigas lang talaga ang ulo ng ating mga kababayan (our fellowmen are just hard-headed). They were always hoping for extension,” Uy lamented.
“We should start being more responsible in complying. When we say deadline, it is really a deadline,” he added.
The DICT chief said this after reporting that there was a “surge in the registration” in the last two weeks before the original April 26 deadline.
According to Uy, there were only an average of 100,000 SIM card registrants during the first few months of the registration period.
“That goes to show the issue is not really limited ID or anything. It is just our bad habit of delaying to the last minute, the compliance (with) the law,” he stressed as the country’s major telcos claimed lack of valid IDs and digital literacy as obstacles to registration.
Meanwhile, Uy also bared plans to concentrate on provinces and islands with low registration turnout.
Among these island provinces, he noted, were Dinagat Islands, Camiguin, Siquijor, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan.
The official said that residents of far-flung provinces should have no problem registering their SIMs because “our system is allowing even barangay-issued IDs so (the) barangay is already the lowest government agency” that is “fully accessible” to all residents.
“In the next 90 days, we will be concentrating on some of those islands and some of the communities where we will be deploying more people and more resources to those islands for registration,” he shared.
A day before the April 26 deadline, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that the deadline has been extended by 90 days, giving active SIM users three more months to have their numbers registered.
Uy said there would be an estimated 15 to 18 million, or as much as 20 million, SIM cards that would be registered during the extension.
He expects total SIM registrations to be around 100 million since the remaining 50 million are disposable ones used for “different purposes,” such as telemarketing and scamming.