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Senate Bill No. 2644: SIM Card Registration

Introduced by Sen. Manny Villar, the Senate Bill No. 2644 (or Prepaid SIM Card Registration) is “an act of requiring the registration of the buyers of prepaid SIM cards, and providing penalties for the violation thereof”.

Filed in January 20, 2011, the bill seeks to address some “text messaging related scams” and other crimes that involve the use of disposable prepaid SIM cards.

Inquirer.net reports that the Department of Justice has endorsed this bill as well:

Villar, in his proposed SB No. 2644 said that prepaid SIM cards are used by criminals in committing money-making activities such as e-raffle and random lottery.

Prepaid SIM cards, he added, have also become a tool of the so-called “dugong-dugong” gang to commit robbery or extort money from their victims.

The bill proposes that all sellers of prepaid SIM cards will require buyers to present government issued identification cards and record all personal information of the buyer.

The bill proposes a penalty of a fine ranging from P100,000 to P1 million and imprisonment from one year to two years for all violators.

Already wrote my piece about SIM card registration here before.

This is not new since telcos are already doing SIM card registration to all postpaid users — over 2 million subscribers are required to register their name and address when getting a postpaid SIM card. This process is just being duplicated to all non-postpaid (prepaid) users.

I’m sure the all postpaid subscribers would agree that this is a secure process — otherwise, I don’t think they’ll remain in postpaid and have their name registered anyways.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

64 Responses

  1. Avatar for camhiliciouz camhiliciouz says:

    on a personal note, exaggerated lang talaga yung mga nagssabi na mava-violate ang human rights…

    i mean, ibig bang sabihin, kaming mga postpaid subscribers eh ganun ang sitwasyon? never experience such. in fact, i felt more secure kasi pwede itrace ang mga transactions ko, walang kaya huli ang mga manloloko…

    and siguro, time na rin na sa business centers nalang pwede bumili ng sim (im not sure before when the sims are a thousand bucks or more, pero sa kanila lang ata pwede bumili nun.

    the FACT is, MARAMI kasi pasaway, kaya dapat supilin sila…

  2. Avatar for JKisaragi JKisaragi says:

    @poche

    nakasaad ba naman dyan sa bill if required sila ipasa pabalik sa telco un info?

    – Yes. Section 2 of Senate Bill No. 2644 states that sellers are mandated to record all information of the buyer and register the same with the telcos.

    2. ready na ba mga telcos na gumawa ng database?

    – Well, it’s not really a question of whether they’re ready or not. If the bill does pass both houses and is enacted by the state (which I doubt it would WITHOUT modification), they have no other choice but to comply.

    3. edi magnanakaw na lang ng phone yun criminals at yun gagamitin.

    – I see where you’re going with this, BUT that is why people should exercise due diligence when it comes to their phones/SIM as it would now be an extension of their identity; another form of identification for the gov’t, and what do we do if we do lose our ID’s? We report them IMMEDIATELY so that we won’t be held liable for the misuse of the lost ID.

    Maybe we should all stop thinking of how “tedious” the process could be on our end kasi pag nasai-batas na to, wala na rin naman tayong choice but to comply. :)

  3. Avatar for No Name No Name says:

    Replacing lost SIM Card with the same number required affidavit of lost and Valid ID. Nagawa ko na sa Globe yan twice and once sa SMART. They just need the ICCID of your SIM card.

  4. Avatar for poche poche says:

    “The bill proposes that all sellers of prepaid SIM cards will require buyers to present government issued identification cards and record all personal information of the buyer.”

    -what?? yun mga tiange o sari sari store lang maglilista? nakasaad ba naman dyan sa bill if required sila ipasa pabalik sa telco un info? 2nd ready na ba mga telcos na gumawa ng database?

    at panghuli if criminal activities lang concern ni villar kasi nga nagagamit daw yan mga sim na yan dun edi magnanakaw na lang ng phone yun criminals at yun gagamitin. ang downside nito yun nanakawan ang mapagbibintangan since siya naka registered lol.

  5. Avatar for elmerlovesoreo elmerlovesoreo says:

    I’m surprised na galing kay Manny Villar yung proposal. Kala ko puro subdivision lang ang concern n’ya :)

  6. Avatar for TechBOI TechBOI says:

    Gumawa na naman ng batas. Ang tanong e mapapatupad ba?

  7. Avatar for Rian Rian says:

    Wala naman bago dito, e yung smartbro, skycable at pldt nga namin naka register din sa name ko. So hindi naman big deal ito sa privacy unless gagawa ka talaga ng kalokohan di ba.

  8. Avatar for JKisaragi JKisaragi says:

    @Melvin:

    May required documents ba for replacement with number retention?

    I would love to have my SIM revived, almost 10 years na rin kasi to and it’s been through a lot (even surviving a cycle sa washing machine. XD)

  9. Avatar for Benchmark33 Benchmark33 says:

    Talaga Melvin…wow…thats good…san mo naman nireport na nawala yung sim mo? Any globe telecoms or dun mismo sa main office nila dyan sa may Boni?

  10. Avatar for daniel daniel says:

    hirap na manloko nyan ^^ haha may identity na

  11. Avatar for Melvin Melvin says:

    I’m a globe prepaid user i lost my phone with my sim last november they replaced my sim with same number without charge :D

  12. Avatar for Benchmark33 Benchmark33 says:

    Really Erin? Well sa Globe, I know I registered my sim to them but I am not sure if I have the same perks na I could ask for a replacement sim if I lost it…lalo na my number is somewhat VANITY. hehehehe then again, 10 years na kasi yung sim kong yun sa akin, kaya ingat na ingat ako…hehehehe

  13. Avatar for jojo jojo says:

    ganyan din dito sa brunei, kahit sa mga corner stores, pino-photocopy nila ang either passport or Identification card(IC) mo pagbumili ka ng SIM tapos sina-submit nila yan sa telco…kaya parang ala pa akong nabasang text-scam dito…

  14. Avatar for bagito_pa bagito_pa says:

    Ganyan din sa saudi dati…. sinasabi ng telecom na puputulin nila service kapag hindi nag register pero hindi nila magawa dahil mababawasan sila ng subscriber…. implemented lang sa mga bagong kukuha ng sim…..

  15. Avatar for RJCA RJCA says:

    Largely impractical.

  16. Avatar for Ed Ed says:

    while i totally agree with the purpose of registering, i would assume administering it would be more difficult than most people think. giving your IDs and info to a Globe/Smart Business Center (a trustworthy place for this type of transaction) is definitely not the same as giving your info to a corner store where you picked up a prepaid SIM. so i am curious as to how they would go about doing this. maybe e-registration through a website on your own time to activate the sim?

  17. Avatar for raul barrios raul barrios says:

    @Erin really? I didn’t know about that. Nice info, now I can retain my phone number. I’ll just have to register first. Thanks!

  18. Avatar for Erin Erin says:

    I am a prepaid user and I have registered my number with Smart. It allows me the benefit of retaining the same number if for some reason it gets lost or damaged.

    ciao!

  19. Avatar for Operation Super Operation Super says:

    My name is already attached to my number when I upgraded my SIM.

    But the scenario of making existing subscribers to register would be interesting. Maybe telcos could disable your number until you registered it.

    Still, I am all for it.

  20. Avatar for Bryan Bryan says:

    how about the current prepaid users?

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