Senators: No need to extend SIM deadline

MANILA, Philippines — There is no need to extend tomorrow’s deadline for SIM card registration, senators said yesterday.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said he sees no need to extend the deadline, as the estimated number of SIM cards in use is 110 million or almost the same as the population.

“Our population including children and babies is 109 million. This means that many people own multiple prepaid SIM cards,” Gatchalian said.

“It is natural that the number of prepaid SIM cards will go down because people are already foregoing ownership of multiple prepaid SIM cards,” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III also supported the stance of the Department of Information and Communications Technology not to extend the deadline.

“The object of the law is really to find out which SIMs are not being used for serious, legal, important purposes. If only 44 percent are worth keeping active, then so be it,” Pimentel said.

Data from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) showed that as of April 19, 75,564,837 SIM cards have been registered, or about 45 percent of the total number sold or distributed.

Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Registration Act was enacted as a means to fight crimes, including financial scams and terrorism that employ unregistered SIM cards.

At a press briefing yesterday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said he is set to join a Cabinet cluster meeting in Malacañang today on the possibility of extending the deadline, even as authorities are not keen on an extension.

There are “consequences” to the expiry of unregistered SIM cards after the deadline, such as the possibility of “disappearing (cellphone) load” and even its effect on digital wallets such as GCash, the secretary added.

“There will be a lot of repercussions, but the telco companies should not make it an opportunistic event. They should be fair to everyone,” Remulla said. “Our eyes will be on the telcos not to take undue advantage of this,” he added.

“I do not want to posit any opinions on that matter, but I will only say that ‘dura lex sed lex’ – the law may be harsh but it is the law,” Remulla said. “If you want to wait for the last minute, there are repercussions,” he added.

Sen. Grace Poe earlier urged Filipinos still holding unregistered SIM cards to comply with the law requiring their registration.

Poe, chair of the Senate committee on public services and sponsor of RA 11394, urged the public to give the law “one final push as the (April 26) deadline to register approaches.”

“Let’s spread the word that all must enlist their SIM for their protection and peace of mind. The government and telcos should go all out to encourage our countrymen to register,” the senator said. — Elijah Felice Rosales, Evelyn Macairan, Marc Jayson Cayabyab