INCOMING Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sen. Grace Poe have refiled a measure seeking to stop all forms of fraud using mobile phones and the internet that had been vetoed by former President Duterte.
Zubiri said he refiled the SIM Card Registration Act “without the social media provision.”
Duterte vetoed the SIM Card Registration Act since he was not in favor of mandatory registration of social media accounts, which Malacanang said was “without providing proper guidelines and definitions.”
Poe, in refiling the measure, said: “We must not turn a blind eye to the untold misery of millions of our people who are further mired in debts and sunk in poverty after falling prey to these unceasing text scams.”
Under the bill, public telecommunications entities (PTE) shall require SIM card registration as a prerequisite to its sale and activation. All social media account providers shall also be required to reveal their real names and phone numbers.
All existing SIM card subscribers shall register with their respective PTEs within 180 days from the measure’s effectivity. An extension of 120 days shall be allowed upon a valid written request to the Department of Information and Communications Technology. Failure to do so will authorize the PTEs to automatically retire the SIM card number.
The registration form shall be accomplished electronically and kept in a centralized database of the PTE, which shall secure and protect it.
No disclosure of information obtained in the registration process shall be allowed, except in compliance with any law obligating it in accordance with the Data Privacy Act, upon a court order, or with the written consent of the subscriber.
Breach of confidentiality by any PTE shall be meted penalties: first offense, a fine not to exceed P300,000; second offense, not more than P500,000; third and subsequent offense, a fine not exceeding P1 million for every offense.
The unauthorized sale of registered SIM cards shall also be penalized by imprisonment of no less than six years and/or a fine of P200,000.
