THE Senate yesterday ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreeing provisions of the SIM Registration Act, a day after approving it on third and final reading.
Sen. Grace Poe, public service committee chairperson and the chairperson of the Senate contingent, said the bicam agreed “to use the Senate version as the working draft but with numerous reconciled provisions.”
Last night, the House of Representatives also ratified the bicam report on the SIM registration bill which, according to Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, “may gain the distinction as the first law to be signed by President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.”
“This may be the first of the many legislative measures that will be signed and enacted into law by President Marcos Jr. in his six years of office,” Romualdez said in a statement.
The “Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act” is the first legislative measure that successfully passed the approval of the bicameral panel of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 19th Congress.
“This Act will not only help promote responsibility in the end users of SIMs for electronic devices but also provide our law enforcers the necessary tools to resolve crimes involving telecommunication devices,” said the Speaker, the principal author of the measure in the House.
Poe said both houses agreed to drop the term “card” from the bill since innovation on mobile technology “is fast phased and our law must be able to accommodate all present and future variations of the SIMs.”
She said the bicam also adopted the “Senate framework on registration,” which means that information given by a subscriber during registration will go directly to a telcos’ database before the SIM would be activated. This, she said, aims to lessen data breach since small-scale resellers may not handle personal information well upon registration.
Poe also said that minors will be allowed to register SIMs through their parents or guardians within 180 days.
She said the bicam also wants to come up with a list of “non-exhaustive list of identification cards” with photos that can be presented during registration of SIMs as part of their commitment “to make the registration process as clearly outlined and as seamless as possible.”
The documentary requirements for foreigners who want to purchase local SIMs were “also clarified” to promote a friendly tourism and business environment.
Data of existing post-paid subscribers should be included in the SIM register “to ease the process for post-paid subscribers who may have already submitted personal information” to their respective telcos.
Poe said the bicam also agreed to require telcos to establish the necessary registration facilities in remote areas within 60 days of the effectivity of the measure.
“The SIM registration process should be inclusive and accessible, especially for those who may have limited access to the internet and the burden to make this happen is on the telcos who have the capacity and resources to make this happen,” Poe said.
She said they have also added “extra measures” in the confidentiality clause, such as ensuring that a court may order disclosure of information only upon finding of probable cause.
“Mr. President, today we finally sent a clear reply to these scam and spam messages: Stop under pain of penalty. As the text capital of the world, we hold precious our means to communicate and anyone who abuses or misemploys the system to their own fraudulent and unlawful interest must be traceable and subsequently held accountable,” Poe said in her report to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri. — With Wendell Vigilia
