PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday signed the SIM Card Registration Act or Republic Act No. 11934 into law, which he said is timely given the many reports of crimes using mobile phones and the proliferation of text scams and spam.
Marcos, after signing the bill into law — the first measure enacted by the 19th Congress that he signed into law as President — said this sets the “important tone that it is our national policy to ensure that technology shall only be used to improve our people’s lives.
“With the signing of this act, we will finally achieve what has long been overdue, an effective means of regulating the issuance of SIM cards to curb the spread of spam text messages and scams. We will soon be able to provide law enforcement agencies with the tools needed to resolve crimes perpetrated with the use of these SIM Cards, as well as providing a strong deterrence against the commission of wrongdoing,” the President said.
Legislators led by Sen. Grace Poe and Speaker Martin Romualdez, along with PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr., welcomed the new law, saying it is a big step in stopping crimes through the use of cellphones and other electronic devices.
Under the new law, telecommunication companies or direct sellers are required to ask SIM card users to present a valid identification and store the data of their subscribers. Any information in the SIM card registration shall be treated as confidential unless the subscriber authorizes access to his information.
The law also directs public telecommunications entities to disclose the full name and address contained in the SIM card registration only upon a duly issued subpoena or order of a court and allow law enforcement agencies — which conduct probes on purported crimes committed through phones — to submit a written request to telco firms to disclose the details of the SIM card holder.
Failure to comply will result in the grant of authority for telecommunications entities to automatically deactivate services to the specific SIM card subscriber under the force of law.
The use of false or fictitious information, the use of fictitious identities, and the use of fraudulent documents or identifications to register a SIM card shall also be dealt with appropriate penalties.
Appropriate penalties shall likewise be imposed for “any breach to confidentiality due to negligence, for spoofing a registered SIM card, for the selling of stolen SIM cards and for the sale or transfer of a registered Sim without complying with required registration.”
“So, I commend the legislators from the House and from the Senate for coming up with this timely and necessary law. It is the first legislative measure that successfully passed the approval of the bicameral panel of both houses in the 19th Congress… It is my hope that we will be able to enact even more measures to help bring forth the security, progress, and prosperity that we aspire for our Filipino brothers and sisters and for the entire nation,” the President said.
The signing was held in Malacañang with Vice President Sara Duterte, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Romualdez, Information and Communications technology Secretary Ivan Uy, and other stakeholders present.
Alexander Ramos, Executive Director of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), welcomed the signing of the SIM registration law, saying that scammers should beware as their “days are numbered.
“With the signing of the SIM registration law, scammers and hackers who are using this vulnerability in hiding their identities to victimize people can now be identified. This act outweighs the general security of subscribers than issues of privacy some critics have raised. This act protects the responsible users and places accountability on everyone to be more disciplined in the proper use of this technology,” he said.
Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), in a statement hailed the signing of the law even as it called on the government to give them more time to prepare for the SIM registration, especially of prepaid subscribers.
It said that it must test its system and ensure the safety of the information that it collects from their subscribers, especially the prepaid SIM card owners.
It added that Smart is also ready to participate in the crafting of the bill’s Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR).
Globe Telecoms, in welcoming the passage of the SIM Registration law, said it is envisioned to provide stronger regulation and enforcement against cybercriminals hiding behind anonymity to defraud mobile phone users.
“We support the passage of this measure after previous roadblocks and we are ready to comply. Aside from our advanced cybersecurity capabilities, we welcome a new regulatory environment that has stronger safeguards against cyberthreats and other crimes carried out using mobile phones,” it said in a statement.
Globe also called for the faster distribution of the national ID system which would help ensure the “safe and successful implementation” of the new SIM Registration Act.
“A verifiable and fool-proof identification system is the foundation of the SIM Registration law. If people are allowed to submit any form of identification which can easily be falsified, SIM registration will be useless for law enforcers and fraudsters will continue to operate,” it added.
‘WE WORKED HARD’
Poe, committee on public services chairperson and sponsor of the measure, said “we worked hard to pass the legislation anew as a crucial first step to fend off text scammers, while guaranteeing utmost respect to fundamental human rights.
“We hail the President’s signing of this long overdue measure into law… The law has instituted sufficient safeguards that accord primacy to consumers’ right to privacy to ensure a safe and secure mobile use in the country,” Poe said in a statement.
A similar measure was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 18th Congress but was vetoed by former President Duterte due to a provision requiring the registration of social media accounts.
Poe said the salient features of the measure include that any information obtained in SIM registration will be treated with “absolute confidentiality” and cannot be disclosed unless otherwise ordered by a court upon finding of probable cause.
Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva said this new law “is not just this administration’s victory” but “a victory against text scammers who continue to take advantage of our fellow Filipinos.
“We thank Pres. Bongbong Marcos and our colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives for urgently passing this law. As author and co-sponsor, we are truly thankful that we were able to pass this through political will and the shared desire to serve our countrymen. Indeed, the signing of this landmark and very first law passed by this 19th Congress is a testament to our commitment to bring about genuine reforms and pass important legislations through and despite diverse political views,” Villanueva said.
Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, also one of the authors of the bill, said the Philippines will now belong to the list of countries that mandate SIM registration in a bid to “deter cybercrimes and other electronic communication-aided criminal activities.
“At a time of rapid digital adoption driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s imperative to have laws that are more attuned to the times and the needs of society — not only in the ways Filipinos communicate, work, engage in e-commerce, access information, etc.,” Ejercito said.
Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. said the enactment of the measure into law is “timely” since it will address the “worsening number of crimes involving the use of SIM card-enabled devices for communication.
“With the signing of this measure, which we can all admit has been a long time coming, we are finally moving forward towards eradicating crimes that take advantage of the anonymity provided by unregistered SIM cards back then. We thank President BBM for the swift passage of this crucial piece of legislation,” Revilla said.
Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said the law will be an “important move against scams” which have also victimized a number of senators.
“We ourselves have fallen victims to the text scams that the SIM (Card) Registration Act hopes to address. We assure the public that we will be closely monitoring the implementation of this Act, the first bill to be signed into law under this administration. We will ensure that the fears and anxieties of some groups about this Act will not materialize,” Ejercito said.
‘GREAT FIRST STEP’
Romualdez thanked President Marcos for signing the SIM Registration Act into law, saying it is “a great first step towards the protection of the privacy of Filipinos that is currently vulnerable to intrusion from unscrupulous individuals who are using personal data to either misrepresent, scam, or defraud consumers.
“On behalf of members of the House of Representatives, we would like to convey our heartfelt gratitude to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. for signing into law the SIM Registration Act, the very first bill signed into law by this administration,” said Romualdez, who led a contingent from the House of Representatives that witnessed the signing of the law.
Other members of the House present during the simple signing rites were majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, minority leader Marcelino Libanan, presidential son and senior deputy majority leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, and Reps. Cheeno Almario (Davao Oriental), Tobias Tiangco (Navotas City); Jude Acidre (PL, Tingog, Rex Gatchalian (Valenzuela City), Roman Romulo (Pasig City), and Stella Luz Quimbo (Marikina City).
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, a co-author of the law, said mobile subscribers can now heave a sigh of relief as they will “now be better protected against the plethora of phone-based scams like “smishing,” more so now when digital tricksters have managed to hack more personal information from their victims, including the actual names of these cellphone users they intend to swindle.”
Smishing refers to the short message service (SMS) phishing in which scammers try to hoodwink unsuspecting cellular phone (cellphone) users into giving them personal information, like passwords and credit card numbers, that these bilkers can use to commit identity theft to, for example, duplicate the victims’ credit cards or withdraw money from their bank accounts.
“It will be easier for the authorities or PTEs (public telecommunications or telco entities) to trace persons behind text scams and hold them accountable for breach of privacy along with cellphone-based fraud and other punishable offenses they are able to perpetrate by using unknown or unregistered mobile phone numbers,” Villafuerte said.
“But the apparent helplessness of our authorities in stopping cyber criminals from preying on the owners of over a hundred million cellfones through smishing and other scams has become the dark side of the digital transformation in our country where there are more mobile phones than people,” Villafuerte said. “Hence, it is high time that we secure our mobile SIMs from the proliferation of phone-based frauds through the mandatory registration of both prepaid and postpaid subscribers and their cellphone numbers.”
Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela), a member of the militant Makabayan bloc which is part of the House minority bloc, however, said the administration has put the “data privacy of millions of Filipinos at risk by exposing people’s information to undue threat of leaks, disinformation, vilification, surveillance, and harassment.
“Moreover, we are deeply concerned as there are many cases where state security forces use registered personal information of critics for state surveillance and targeted attacks.
With this law, state forces can easily profile activists and use their information to conduct surveillance and harass them. We must brace for more cases of cyber attacks, data breach, and harassment of activists with the enactment of this law,” she said.
‘GIVING LAW ENFORCEMENT MORE TEETH’
“This particular measure will undoubtedly add more teeth to law enforcement in the form of accurate identification of all mobile phone users,” said Azurin.
Azurin said telecommunication has been “revolutionized extensively” over the past years, adding “even criminal syndicates and terrorist organizations have taken advantage of technology for criminal and terrorist activities.”
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that limited the movement of people, Azurin said criminals shifted to online crimes, using telecommunication and cyberspace platforms.
“They have devised different modus operandi to scam people of their hard-earned money.
They hid behind the comfort of anonymity by using prepaid SIM cards to defraud unsuspecting victims,” said Azurin.
He said the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group has recorded a total of 4,254 SIM card-related offenses from January to September year alone.
“This data does not include cases handled by other units of the PNP, other government institutions, reported incidents being handled by the different financial institutions and cases unreported by victims,” said Azurin.
“We are confident that our people will learn to accept the fact that the benefits of mandatory SIM card registration for all mobile phone users outweigh the perceived privacy issues and other concerns regarding of confidentiality of communications that are duly protected under Philippine laws,” added Azurin. — With Raymond Africa, Wendell Vigilia, and Victor Reyes
