Senator Grace Poe has called for a review of the SIM Registration Law as the number of spam and scam messages surge again even after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive formally banning the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs.

Poe said it is imperative that lawmakers grill the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and telecommunication companies (telcos) what they have done to stop SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card fraud, the illegal distribution of SIMs and if cases have been filed against the perpetrators or violators of the law.

“Hindi sa batas ang problema, although wala namang batas na perpekto, makikita naman natin kung saan tayo nagkulang. Pero sa ngayon, ang halatang halata ay ang (pagkukulang sa) implementasyon (The problem is not about the law, although no law is perfect, we can still see where we went wrong). But for now, it’s obvious that there was lack of implementation),” Poe said in an Radio DZBB interview on Sunday, March 2. 

“Hindi nagagawa, hindi nahuhuli ka agad itong mga ito (It doesn't work, and they fail to catch them right away),” the senator lamented. 

The Senate Finance Committee chairperson said the NTC should disclose whether they have successfully filed criminal charges against these scammers who persist to swindle mobile phone users either through text messages or through social media platforms.

“Sa tingin ko, pwede nating tanungin ang NTC sa susunod kung meron na ba silang nakasuhan (I think we can ask the NTC if they have filed criminal charges against these personalities),” she said.

“Kasi alam naman natin kahit na maganda yung batas natin o yung mga parusa ay mabigat, kung wala namang nahuhuli, wala namang matatakot. So yun po yung ating nagiging dilemma dito o problema (We all know that even if a law ahs good intentions and the penalties are stringent, but if no one is prosecuted, no one will be afraid. So that becomes our dilemma or problem here),” she pointed out.

Poe stressed the Senate Committee on Public Services should also take note on how some of these text and online scams cross over to popular social media platforms and how this matter should be addressed.

President Marcos signed the SIM Registration Act, which was seen as a deterrent to the proliferation of text scams and texts spams, last October 2022.

The law was enacted intending to curb cybercriminal activities, but the inclusion of social media as part of the SIM card registration process was removed due to concerns about data privacy. 

Poe said she believes social media should now be part of the law in order to effectively clamp down on cybercrimes and other fraudulent online activities. 

“Hindi lang natin pinayagan noon kasi nagkakaroon na ng dalawang topic sa isang batas. Dapat meron lang isang particular subject (We didn't allow it before because there were already two topics in one law. There should be only one particular subject),” Poe recalled.

“So, isa rin yan sa pwedeng tignan din ng Committee on Public Services siguro sa susunod ng mga pagkakataon (So, that is also one of the things that the Committee on Public Services can also look at in the next opportunity),” she said.