THE chair of the House committee on appropriations yesterday backed calls to extend the April 26 SIM registration deadline for 60 days, saying the lack of accepted identification cards is the main reason behind the low registration turnout.
Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol) urged the government to consider expanding the list of accepted IDs to make it easier for everyone to register since it appears to be the main reason why many have not been able to register their prepaid SIM cards.
“Judging by how slow the SIM registration has progressed these past months, I don’t think the number of days is what will truly matter. I believe the major problem is the lack of acceptable identification,” he said. “I am in favor of extending the SIM Registration deadline, but by 60 days only, and there must be substantial additions to the list of accepted identification documents.”
Globe and Smart have sought an extension of the registration period because of the low turnout of registrants, saying that one stumbling block to maximizing the list-up is the lack by many subscribers of the needed identification requirement, such as the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys) ID, driver’s license or passport, for them to list up their SIMs with their respective PTEs.
Co believes that while the SIM Registration Law allows an extension of up to 120 days, it would “probably make people wait again until the last minute or the last few days of the extension, so that would be counter-productive.”
The administration lawmaker proposed that the following be acceptable proofs of identification: Barangay Residence Certification with picture and barcode; vaccination Card with QR Code; filed latest BIR Income Tax Return; school ID with picture and student number; 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) ATM Card with card number; DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) Social Amelioration Card with barcode; DOLE CAMP (Department of Labor and Employment COVID-19 Adjustment Measure Program) identification card; and PhilSys National ID physical card or electronic card.
For these identification documents to be usable for SIM registration, Co said the agencies and entities that have custody of the databases “should either give the telecom firms access to their databases or they should have a working arrangement for the verification of documents submitted.”
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte earlier called on the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to extend the deadline following its admission that only 36.79 percent of SIM cards sold have been registered as of April 7.
“It is time for the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) and NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) to seriously consider extending the registration period for, say, a month or two, as less than 40% of the nearly 168 million SIM numbers believed in the possession of subscribers have been reported to PTEs (public telecommunications entities) with less than two weeks to go before the April 26 deadline set by law,” he said.
One of the authors of Republic Act (RA) No. 11934 or the “SIM Registration Act,” Villafuerte pointed out that an extension of the list-up deadline is authorized for as long as 120 days or four months under the 2022 law that is meant to beef up the global fight against cybercrime.
The NTC website reported that as of April 11, or barely two weeks before the deadline, a total of 66.21 million SIM cards have been registered with the three PTEs, which is just 39.41 percent of an estimated 168.977 million SIMs nationwide.
