A screenshot of the sample identification card that the National Bureau of Investigation used to test the registration of SIM cards in different telecommunications companies.
MANILA, Philippines — Could a “monkey” register a subscriber identity module (SIM) card?
The answer is yes — at least based on the actual test done by a team from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The night before the hearing of the Senate committee on public services on Tuesday, NBI Cybercrime Division Chief Attorney Jeremy Lotoc said they tried to register SIM cards from different telecommunication companies (telcos).
“We entered the face of an animal in different names natanggap pa rin [it was also accepted],” Lotoc said.
He later showed a sample of a SIM card application with a face of a monkey on it.
Lotoc said this only proves that anyone could still register using fraudulent identities despite the implementation of the SIM registration law.
“Ang issue kasi namin, prior (to the implementation of the law) meron ng mga fraudulent identities. In fact as of the moment, nag e-exist pa rin, pwede hong mag-register na kahit ibang identity ang gamit nyo,” he said.
(Our issue is that there were already fraudulent identities before the law’s implementation. In fact, as of the moment, they still exist. You can still register using a different identity.)
“Sa law enforcement side, medyo nahihirapan din kaming mag-track kasi pag tiningnan namin kung sino yung pangalan o owner ng SIM na yun iba ho yung lumalabas,” he added.
(On the law enforcement side, we are also having a bit of difficulty tracking [them] because a different one appears when we check the name or owner of that SIM.)
This revelation dismayed panel head, Senator Grace Poe, and Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva.
Poe nevertheless commended the NBI for doing its work.
“Alam ko kasi yung telco gusto talagang nila marami talaga sila [I know for a fact that these telcos want to have more] subscribers so they will make its as easy as possible. This is really sad,” she said.
Villanueva also could not believe how a monkey could pass the SIM registration.
“If you’re with the telcos and you see this application form of a monkey smiling at you, what the heck are you doing? It’s commons sense na hindi dapat pagbigyan ito dahil hindi po natin mahuhuli yung mga gumagawa ng kalokohan dito,” he said.
(If you’re with the telcos and see this application form of a monkey smiling at you, what are you doing? It’s common sense that we shouldn’t tolerate this because we won’t be able to catch those who are up to no good here.)
Globe Telecom Inc., through its corporate and legal services group head Ariel Tubayan, did not discount the possibility that indeed animal pictures could have been used for SIM registration.
This is the reason why he said they were requesting, when the SIM law was still being discussed in Congress, to have access to government ID issuers so they could validate the IDs that would be used by applicants.
He said the implementation of the law would also be easier if the national ID has been fully implemented first.
“Pero unggoy yung nasa picture e? (But the one in the picture is a monkey, right?)” Villanueva said.
“Hindi po namin nakikita yun kasi deretso po sa system (We could not see it because the [registration process] goes directly to the system),” Tubayan said.
Before this, Poe asked about information she received that Globe and Smart supposedly “resisted” to include facial recognition in the law’s implementing rules and regulations.
Tubayan said Globe did not resist its inclusion though he said “there were concerns that were put forward.”
“Pero eventually po meron kaming validation process. Meron pong selfie. Kung sino nagre-register, nagse-selfie po yan tapos meron pong government ID na suppossedly ipe-present,” he explained.
(But eventually, we have a validation process. There’s a selfie. Whoever is registering takes a selfie, and there’s supposed to be a government ID presented.)
“So selfie ng monkey (So a selfie of a monkey)?” Poe asked.
“Palagay ko po kung yun ang ginamit nila (I think so if that’s what they used),” Tubayan answered.