House panel OKs SIM card registration bill anew

UPDATE: The House of Representative on Tuesday, September 20 has approved the HB14 or SIM Card Registration Bill on its third in final reading with 256-6-1 vote. The bill will be called SIM Registration Act through Senate Bill No. 1310, with an amendment omitting the word “card” to also cover newer types of SIMs, such as eSIM or electronic SIM.

The House of Representatives Committee on Information and Communications Technology on Monday approved the consolidated measure, House Bill 14, on mandatory registration of SIM cards.

Navotas Rep. and chairperson of the panel Toby Tiangco approved the refiled and consolidated bill that seeks to require registration of mobile users of all postpaid and prepaid Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards with their personal information.

Currently, only postpaid SIM cards are required for registration.

The primary bill, House Bill 14, which House Speaker Martin Romualdez filed, was the exact version approved in the 18th Congress but former-President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed it, reasoned for a more “thorough study” on the matter and that the original version did not include registration requirement on social media providers.

ALSO READ: President Duterte vetoes SIM Card Registration Act

“Due to the lack of SIM card regulation in the country, it becomes nearly impossible to trace the persons behind the text scams and hold them accountable for fraud, breach of data privacy or other punishable offenses that they committed using an unknown mobile number,” Romualdez said in his explanatory note.

In relation to this, the Senate Services Committee has set its hearing on the proliferation of text scam messages on September 8.

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