House passes SIM card registration bill anew on final reading

The House of Representatives on Wednesday on third and final reading approved the bill seeking to mandate the registration of mobile subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.

The House approval came amid the proliferation of spam text messages and offers of shady transactions.

House Bill No. 14, approved with 250 yes votes, six no votes and one abstention, orders public telecommunications entities PTE) or direct sellers to require the end user of a SIM card to present a valid ID with photo to ascertain the latter's identity.

The bill said that the PTE or any direct seller should require the end-user to accomplish and sign a control-numbered registration form.

Such registered information covers the mobile phone number and other personal information of a subscriber such as full name, date of birth, gender, and address.

Navotas Representative Tobias Tiangco, chairman of the House information and communications technology panel and principal sponsor of the measure, earlier said the mandatory SIM registration was a way to prevent people from falling prey to scammers.

“Crimes are not just perpetuated by using a SIM card. What we would like to concentrate on is crimes involving SIM cards. As to the question of the crime rate of those countries, it would not reflect on the law’s effectiveness," Tiangco said.

Let us look at our daily experience. We get more phishing and smishing text messages than those from people we know,” "he added.

Tingog party-list Representative Jude Acidre, a co-author, said that the bill if enacted into law would protect vulnerable people from being ripped off of their hard earned money, which also causes anxiety, as well as prevent cybercrime and fake news.

Kabataan party-list representative Raoul Manuel, however, said the bill would result in more data breaches, if not identity theft.

“If we are proposing a law, we should be certain that this measure will be effective. SIM cards can be cloned using varying devices,” Manuel said.

Tiangco said that the bill had a confidentiality clause and was not the be all and end all in crime fighting.

“The confidentiality clause takes effect from the point of the sale of the SIM card and the bill bans the execution of a waiver of confidentiality on the part of the public telecommunication entity or the consumer,” Tiangco said. —NB, GMA News