MANILA, Philippines — Amid the rising number of fraudulent registrations, Senators Grace Poe and Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday said the implementation of SIM Registration law should be improved rather than suspended.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission earlier raised the idea of temporarily halting online registration of SIM cards and suggested that telecommunication companies manually verify the information of registrants.
“The problem is not with the SIM Registration law, it’s in the enforcement. The law has enough teeth against fraudsters as well as safeguards to [the] privacy of our people,” Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public services, said in a statement.
It was also Poe’s committee that deliberated and endorsed the approval of the measure in the upper chamber.
“Concerned agencies and telcos must be able to plug the loopholes in their effective implementation without halting registration,” she added.
In a separate statement, Poe also stressed that it is the government’s job to make the system better, rather than scrapping the measure right away.
“Stopping online registration at this point is a cop out to a problem that can be solved by better implementation of a well-intentioned law,” Poe stressed.
Among the proposed improvements to eradicate fraudulent registrations include requiring mandatory live selfies and prohibition of stock photo options.
Cayetano echoed Poe’s call when he said that the enforcement of the law should be strengthened.
“Ang sa akin ay [huwag] itigil muna, [bagkus ay] higpitan nila. Huwag nating pahirapan ang mga taong honest at huwag nating masyadong hirapan ang registration,” said Cayetano.
(What I’m saying is that let’s not stop it, rather strengthen it first. Let’s not burden honest people and let’s not make the registration too difficult.)