Marcos set to sign SIM registration law on Oct 10
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is set to sign the SIM Registration Act on Oct. 10.
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| File photo: SIM card |
SIM registration is a step away from being a signed measure
The SIM Registration Act is just a day away from being signed, which will make it the first law signed under the Marcos administration.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will sign into law on Monday, Oct. 10., the SIM Card Registration Act which aims to promote accountability in the use of SIM cards and aid law enforcers to track perpetrators of crimes committed through phones, said Cheloy Garafil, officer-in-charge of the Office of the Press Secretary in a statement, according to a report by CNN Philippines.
The decision to approve the measure "will significantly boost government initiatives against scams committed through text and online messages, which have become more prevalent this year," she noted.
Through this law, "all public telecommunications entities (PTE) or direct sellers shall require the SIM card user to present a valid identification document with a photo. Any information in the SIM card registration shall be treated as confidential unless the subscriber authorizes access to his information," Garafil explained.
Telcos will also be required to disclose the registered full name and address upon a duly issued subpoena or order of a court. Law enforcement agencies investigating crimes committed through phones may also write a request to the companies to obtain the registered information of the SIM owner.
The National Privacy Commission has expressed its support for the measure "to prevent the proliferation of various and evolving electronic communication-aided criminal activities."
Telco players, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have also expressed support for the law.
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| The country’s telco players |
We believe that once signed into law, SIM registration will take us a step ahead of fraudsters and help achieve our shared goal of eradicating scam and spam messaging, Globe Group general counsel Froilan Castelo was quoted in a report by Inquirer.net.
Smart vice president and head of regulatory affairs Roy Ibay also said the company was looking at key features of the bill ratified by the House and the Senate, and would be prepared to share his company’s "knowledge of global best practices."
Rodolfo Santiago, chief technology officer of DITO Telecommunity, had raised the need to use the national ID and the passport to validate subscriber identity under the proposed law. This would "unburden the telcos of the need to establish another database to store biometrics data, which would be time-consuming and resource-heavy," he explained.
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