By Billy Begas
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte lauded the leadership of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the swift passage of the SIM card registration bill to safeguard mobile phone users from cybercriminals.
Villafuerte, one of the authors of the measure said the mandatory registration of all SIM cards would be a deterrent to the commission of crimes with the aid of cellphone because criminals can no longer commit their crimes incognito and law enforcement agencies can use the registration to trace the criminals.
“The swift congressional passage of the proposed SIM Card Registration Act is a must for the 19th Congress to better protect all mobile phone subscribers against the barrage of phone-based scams like smishing, particularly now when digital tricksters have managed to get more personal information, including the actual names of cellphone users they intend to swindle,” said Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP), the second largest party in Congress.
The House approved the measure on the third and final reading last Monday while the Senate approved it on the second reading on the same day.
Villafuerte said Globe Telecom recently reported blocking 784 million scams and spam messages from January to July 2022, deactivating 14,058 scam-linked SIM cards, and blacklisting 9,973 numbers.
Globe-led E-wallet company GCash has reported blocking 1.37 million fraudulent accounts from January 2021 to July 2022.
PLDT and its subsidiary Smart Communications have reported blocking 23 million smishing text messages in just three days.
“But the apparent helplessness of our authorities in stopping cyber criminals from preying on millions of celfone users 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 added.
Villafuerte said the proposed SIM card registration bill will help address these problems.
Under House Bill 2213, public telecommunication entities or direct sellers shall require their end users or subscribers to present valid identification documents with photos to ascertain their identities when they acquire SIM cards.
The subscriber will also need to fill out and sign a control-numbered registration form.
The information in the SIM card registration shall be treated as absolutely confidential and can be accessed only if the subscriber has issued consent, a Court issued a subpoena, or upon the written request of a law enforcement agency conducting an ongoing investigation involving the concerned number.
