Marcos signs law to fight text scams

DONE! President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signs the SIM Card Registration Act, the first bill he signed into law as the Chief Executive, on Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. Vice President Sara Duterte, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Sen. Mary Grace Poe and Rep. Sandro Marcos look on.  Contributed photo

By Kristina Maralit October 11, 2022 

DONE! President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signs the SIM Card Registration Act, the first bill he signed into law as the Chief Executive, on Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. Vice President Sara Duterte, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Sen. Mary Grace Poe and Rep. Sandro Marcos look on.  Contributed photo

PRESIDENT Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Monday signed the SIM Card Registration Act, the first legislation enacted under his administration. The law aims to curb text scams and spam.

The ceremonial signing was held in Malacañang with Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, House Speaker Martin Romualdez and other stakeholders standing as witnesses.

"I commend the legislators from the House and from the Senate for coming up with this timely and necessary law. It is the first legislative measure that successfully passed the approval of the bicameral panel of both houses in the 19th Congress," the Chief Executive said, adding that such a law "has long been overdue."

"Truly, the legislation is going to be welcomed by many of our people, especially now with reports of the commission of various crimes using mobile phones, including proliferation of text scams and spam. Indeed, with the signing of this law, we set the important tone that it is our national policy to ensure that technology shall only be used to improve our people's lives," he added.

Filipinos rank among the world's heaviest users of social media, and the country has become a key battleground for misleading or fake news.

Many mobile phone users in the Philippines use pre-paid SIM cards that they buy over the counter without giving their names and addresses to providers.

Republic Act 11394 mandates all public telecommunications entities (PTE) or direct sellers to require buyers of subscriber identity module cards to present a valid identification document with a photo.

It likewise directs telecommunication companies to disclose the registered full name and address of the subscriber upon a duly issued subpoena or order from a court.

The PTEs are also given 30 days to submit a list of their authorized sellers or dealers to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). This should be updated quarterly.

KUWTT: Marcos signs law to fight text scams | Oct. 11, 2022

The Palace earlier said that the enactment of the bill will "significantly boost government initiatives against scams committed through text and online messages, which have become more prevalent this year."

Marcos believes that scams will drastically decline as the new law is seen as "an effective means of regulating the issuance of SIM cards to curb the spread of spam text messages and scams."

"We will soon be able to provide law enforcement agencies the tools needed to resolve crimes perpetrated with the use of these SIM cards as well as providing a strong deterrence against the commission of wrongdoings," he said.

"To cover all users of SIM cards in this Act, telecommunications entities are mandated to ensure the registration of existing prepaid SIM card phone subscribers within a prescribed period. Failure to comply results to the grant of authority for telecommunications entities to automatically deactivate services to the specific SIM Card subscriber under the force of law," he added.

Marcos signs SIM card registration law

The use of false or fictitious information, fictitious identities, fraudulent documents or identification to register a SIM Card shall also be dealt with by appropriate penalties, the President warned. He reassured the public that there are enough measures to protect the confidentiality and data privacy rights of subscribers from point of sale.

"Any information in the SIM Card Registration shall be treated as absolutely confidential unless access to this information has been granted by the written consent of the subscriber," Marcos said.

Globe Telecoms on Monday expressed support for the law.

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In a statement, Globe said a verifiable and fool-proof identification system is the foundation of the SIM Registration law.

It said that if people are allowed to submit any form of identification which can easily be falsified, SIM registration will be useless.

"For this reason, our position has been clear from the beginning. A national ID system must be in place to ensure the safe and successful implementation of this new law," Globe General Counsel Froilan Castelo said.

Globe also said the government must look at global best practices in implementing the new SIM Registration bill.

Many countries are using their national ID system to verify the identity of a person who registers a SIM number.

"We support the passage of this measure after previous roadblocks and we are ready to comply. Aside from our advanced cybersecurity capabilities, we welcome a new regulatory environment that has stronger safeguards against cyberthreats and other crimes carried out using mobile phones," Castelo said.

Globe said it is working with the government in drafting the implementing rules and regulations for the rational enforcement of the law, including the rollout of the retroactive registration of tens of millions of prepaid SIM users.