For signing into law SIM Registration Act

SPEAKER Martin G. Romualdez on Monday thanked President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. for signing into law the SIM Registration Act meant to protect Filipino consumers against scammers and identity thieves.

“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,” Romualdez said.

President Marcos signed into law the SIM Registration Act, which shall be known as Republic Act (RA) No. 11934, barely a week after Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri signed the enrolled bill on the measure, paving the way for its transmittal to the Palace for the President’s approval.

“This measure was approved in both the House and in the Senate, and President Marcos’ signature on this very important piece of legislation only signifies his administration’s recognition of the need to put in place measures that will protect Filipino consumers against cybercriminals and online scammers,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez led a contingent from the House of Representatives that witnessed the President sign into law the SIM Registration Act.

Other members of the House present during the simple signing rites were Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” M. Dalipe, Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, House senior Deputy Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, and Reps. Chino Almario, Toby Tiangco, Jude Acidre, Rex Gatchalian, Roman Romulo and Stella Luz Quimbo.

Romualdez said the SIM Registration Act 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.

The clamor for the passage of a law on mandatory SIM registration mounted amid increasing reports of cell phone users, including several lawmakers and government officials, who received unsolicited messages containing their personal details and asking them to click on a link to avail of certain services or transactions.

Reports said many of those who unwittingly clicked the provided link either lost money from their bank accounts or had their social media accounts and emails hacked and their identities used to defraud other persons.

It could be recalled that a similar measure has been extensively discussed and approved during the 18th Congress where Romualdez served as the Majority Leader but was vetoed by the previous administration because of the inclusion of a provision calling for the mandatory registration of social media accounts.

The current version of the law does not contain such a provision.

The SIM Registration Act is based on House Bill (HB) 14 and Senate Bill (SB) 1310, with their differing provisions harmonized through the bicameral conference committee.

Romualdez is the principal author of HB 14, with Representatives Marcos of Ilocos Norte, and Yedda Marie K. Romualdez and Acidre, both of Tingog party-list as co-authors. It was consolidated with 15 other similar proposals filed before the House of Representatives.

Under the new law, all SIMs for sale are in a deactivated state, and end-users are required to register their SIMs with the concerned Public Telecommunication Entity (PTE) as a pre-requisite to activation.

Existing SIM subscribers are also required to register with their respective PTEs within 180 days from the effectivity of the law.

Failure to register the SIM within the prescribed period will result in automatic deactivation and may only be reactivated after it is registered in compliance with the requirements of the law.

Certain acts such as failure or refusal to register a SIM, breach of confidentiality, using fictitious identities or fraudulent identification documents to register a SIM, spoofing a registered SIM, sale of stolen SIM, and sale or transfer of a registered SIM without complying with required registration, are penalized with varying amounts of fine or duration of imprisonment.

Following President Marcos’ signing into law of Republic Act (RA) 11934, Dalipe and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte thanked President Marcos for signing the SIM Registration Act a law.

“Thank you President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for your quick and decisive action to sign the SIM Registration Act of 2022. This law will surely provide Filipinos a greater sense of security against scammers, unwanted phone solicitations and other criminal activities including terrorism. This law will also help the government ensure a responsible use of the mobile phone technology,” Dalipe said. “The swift enactment of this very important law shows the synergy and the good working relationship between Congress under House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and the Executive Department.”

Villafuerte has said, “All mobile phone subscribers 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 celfone users they intend to swindle.”

Villafuerte said that with the President’s timely enactment of RA 11934, which now requires postpaid and prepaid celfone subscribers alike to register the numbers of their phone SIMs, “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 celfone-based fraud and other punishable offenses they are able to perpetrate by using unknown or unregistered mobile phone numbers.”

‘Smishing’ refers to the short message service (SMS) phishing in which scammers try to hoodwink unsuspecting cellular phone (celfone) 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.

Villafuerte, a co-author of this new law and president of the National Unity Party (NUP), said, “The Philippines has been dubbed as the fastest-growing digital economy among major ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member-states, registering a whopping 93% year-on-year expansion from 2020 to 2021. This figure speaks volume of how Filipinos have become heavily reliant on the advances of technology, especially when it comes to the convenience of online transactions.”

“But the apparent helplessness of our authorities in stopping cyber criminals from preying on the owners of over a hundred million celfones through smishing and other scams has become the darkside 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 celfone numbers.”

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco