File photo of SIM cards. AFP photo
MANILA, Philippines — A man has been arrested for selling SIM cards of verified GCash accounts, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said in a statement issued on Saturday.
The suspect, identified as Mark Antang, was arrested on Wednesday in Caloocan City in a joint entrapment operation by the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation.
“Antang was caught red-handed selling Globe and TM SIM cards with verified GCash accounts,” the NTC said.
Antang faces charges of violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
“The arrest of Antang is a welcome development in the government’s drive against the proliferation of text scams and cybercrime in the country,” NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said. “With systems now in place and the solid cooperation among various government agencies and telcos in fighting text scams and cybercrime, law enforcement efforts should now lead to more arrests.”
In reaction the chief legal counsel fo the Globe Group, Froilan Castelo, said: “People who sell GCash-registered SIM cards enable criminality by being accessories to fraud. We will not relent in this campaign.”
In connection with this, Congress recently approved on second reading the SIM card registration bill as a way to stop text scams offering fake job offers, sham lucky winners, and other money-making schemes with the user’s name.
Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services, said the SIM card registration act was among the priorities of the Senate.
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