INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Several members of the House of Representatives lauded the national government’s decision to extend the subscriber identity module (SIM) card registration deadline and called on telecommunication providers and authorities to place measures that would increase inclusivity.
In a statement on Tuesday, Camarines Sur 2nd District Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. said that a lot of phone users would have been disenfranchised if the government had not extended the deadline.
“A non-extension of the registration period will have led to the disenfranchisement come Wednesday (April 26) of the legion of legit SIM owners who had failed to sign up, thereby dealing a severe blow to the Marcos administration’s efforts to fast-track our country’s digital transformation,” Villafuerte said.
“Hence, we welcome this decision to extend the registration deadline by 90 days as this 3-month grace period would give the DICT [Department of Information and Communications Technology], NTC [National Telecommunications Commission], and PTEs [public telecommunications entities] time to further intensify their list-up drives from hereon and for the government to fix hitches such as stringent identification requirements, weak or no connectivity and other digital challenges believed behind the low registry turnout,” he added.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and other government officials announced a 90-day extension for SIM card registration due to low registration turnout.
Villafuerte, one of the authors of the SIM Registration Act (Republic Act No. 11934), has appealed several times to the government to extend the deadline. Last April 13 — or less than two weeks before the original deadline — he stressed that as of April 7, only 36.79 percent of SIM cards sold had been registered.
“While we recognize the government’s view that shady characters whose SIMs were the tools in their cybercrimes obviously have neither the desire nor intent to actually register their numbers used in scams and other nefarious activities, we must also consider the position of PTEs pushing a deadline extension that legit SIM owners need to be given more time to register their SIMs and avoid disenfranchisement,” he said.
“In separately appealing for an extension, the three PTEs — Smart, Globe, and DITO — told the DICT and NTC that many legitimate SIM holders have possibly failed to register their SIMs over the four-month sign-up period because of their lack of the required ID (identification) cards for them to list up or because of digital challenges such as the poor connectivity or no Internet at all, especially in what the PTEs have called the ‘missionary’ or faraway places across the country,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ang Probinsyano party-list Rep. Alfred de los Santos urged government offices and telco companies alike to take advantage of the 90-day deadline to encourage more individuals to register their SIM cards.
One way of doing this, he said, is to address concerns with the provision of identification cards and connectivity issues especially in far-flung areas.
“With the additional 90 days, I call on telco companies and the DICT to make procedures easier for people so that they can register SIM cards. For example, one of the reasons why people cannot register is because they do not have government IDs,” De los Santos said in Filipino.
“I suggest that they accept barangay certifications with barcodes or the 4Ps cards as proof of identity. Another problem is the lack of data load or access to the internet. I believe the internet connectivity issue can be overcome by simply having each subscriber appear in person at any of the telecom business centers and service branches and follow the Know Your Customer (KYC) rules,” he added.