NSC wants SIM card database to be with nat’l intel agency

(UPDATED 7:46 p.m.) A National Security Council official on Tuesday proposed that the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) be the repository of the database if ever the measure seeking mandatory registration of SIM cards will be enacted into law.

During the hearing of the Senate public works committee, lawyer Pedro Herrera-Davila, head of the legal affairs of the NSC, said making NICA the repository of the list of SIM card owners would allow the government to act immediately on incidents connected with cellphones.

The House of Representatives has already passed its counterpart bill on SIM card registration.

“Because the identification of users of telecommunications equipment including cellphones is consistent with national security, I just would like to make a suggestion, as to what could be the possible answer to a question raised four times today on who might be the repository of all the information to be gathered by the mandatory registration of sim cards throughout the country,” Herrera-Davila said.

“By its name, by its nature, by its mandate, the repository of database for national interest is the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency,” he added.

He noted that the NICA might not have the infrastructure, the equipment, and technology to handle the mountain of data that will be generated by the proposed law “but with appropriate funding support from our government, this can be made to happen.”

He said that once the information is with NICA, every agency would then be hooked to it.

“There would only be one procedure to follow, there would only be one chain of command that would decide whether or not to grant a request for information and the dissemination of information will be as speedy as technology would allow,” he said.

He added that there would also be no controversy as to who should be the most appropriate storekeeper of the information.

“There would be an avoidance of jealousy of turf because when it is NICA already that is the repository, there can be no controversy,” Herrera-Davila said.

He added that such information should be readily available to the government.

“What I foresee is all government agencies handling intelligence or information will be tapped into a network of like a central intelligence so that the retrieval is as good as technology would allow and prior decision making by private industry is not necessary,” he said.

“Why should I be made to wait if the national security is at stake because someone from the private sector needs to make a decision,” he added.

But acting Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III was opposed to the idea.

“Off the cuff, we were thinking that the telecommunication companies would be the repository. It’s just a matter of having it registered so that when we ask them who is 123456789 registered to, they would be able to answer. Because right now if we ask them who  bought this sim card, they would not be able to answer who is this registered to,” he said.

He added that the public would not cooperate if it is the government who would handle the database.

“Other would not be as apprehensive about the government going into the identification or things like that if the repository is the telcos,” Sotto said.

In the bill passed by the House, the repository of the database are the telcos and the National Telecommunications Commission.

Database should be with telcos

NTC Director Edgardo Cabarrios proposed during that hearing that the database stay with the telecommunications company to avoid any leakage.

“If the information is transferred from one source to another, in the transit there may be some leakages. It would be difficult to determine who is the one who leaked the information so it would best if the database would be maintained at the source,” Cabarrios said.

Lawyer Roy Ibay of PLDT/Smart/Digitel said the database should be with the Data Privacy Commission which should have been created under the Data Privacy Law enacted in 2012.

“With the many concerns raised here regarding data privacy and collection, we probably have forgotten that in 2012, the Data Privacy Act was enacted but it was not acted upon. If there is any agency to oversee the implementation and come up with guidelines, it should be the Data Privacy Commission,” Ibay told the committee.

Laywer Rodolfo Salalima of Globe Telecom said the proposed SIM registration is a form of restraint on the freedom of expression and telecommunicate which have been declared by the United Nations as basic rights.

He also said that there is no empirical data to back claims that registration of SIM would lower crimes citing the cases of United Kingdom, European Union, and Kenya.

“There is no empirical research showing the causal connection between the registration of prepaid sim card and diminution of the crime. In the UK, they intended also to pass a bill but when they made an empirical research the result was no so they did not proceed,” Salalima said.

He added that law itself encourages the proliferation of a black market.

“The criminals will use the unregistered cards to commit crime.  It will not be an effective remedy at all,” Salalima said.

Sotto said he agreed with the right to communicate but “but when you trample with the right to life, the right to telecommunicate takes a backseat.”

In an interview after the meeting, the senator downplayed the opposition of the telecommunication companies.

“Dati na silang kontra diyan eh, nag TRO (temporary restraining order) pa nga sila sa Supreme Court nung nagkaroon ng NTC directive. Kaya nga ngayon na kinontra nila kailangan na ng batas,” Sotto said.

He also said that there will be no black market as all of the SIM cards belong to the telcos.

“Hindi pwedeng mangyari iyong black market sapagkat sa kanila rin dadaan yang SIM cards e. Ang ibig bang sabihin makakabili ka ng Sim cards na hindi Smart o hindi Globe o hindi Sun na hindi naka-register sa kanila at hindi nila alam? Paano makakabili ng load? Hindi totoo ‘yun,” Sotto said. —NB, GMA News