SIX of 10 Filipinos believe the registration of SIM cards in the country is a deterrent to crime, the December survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents nationwide with a margin of error of ±2.8 percent, showed that 66 percent believes that SIM card registration will help fight crimes done though cell phones, with 36 percent saying they “strongly believe” and 30 percent saying they “somewhat believe.”
Ten percent do not believe that SIM card registration will help, composed of five percent who “somewhat do not believe” and 5 percent who “strongly do not believe”, while 25 percent was “undecided.”
The survey also showed that 60 percent (32 percent strongly approve, 29 percent somewhat approve) approve of the registration of SIM cards and 17 percent (10 percent strongly disapprove, 7 percent somewhat disapprove) disapprove of the mandatory registration. Twenty-three percent are undecided.
It also found that 55 percent of the respondents just learned or heard of the required registration of SIM cards and 45 percent said they have long heard about it even before they were asked to answer the survey.
As of last January, at least 20 million active sim card users have registered their SIM cards.
The government has set the deadline for registration to April this year and expects around 60 million to 80 million to be registered by then.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan Uy previously said there are an estimated 140 million to 150 million SIMs that are currently in the market but some of them are still not active.
