MANILA – The Senate Bill 1310 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card Registration Act was ratified by all senators present during the Senate’s 25th regular session held on Tuesday.
Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Committee on Public Services, thanked her 19 colleagues for approving the bill.
She also acknowledged the relevant amendments of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III and Senator Pia Cayetano.
“Finally, meron na tayong magagawa (we can do something) aside from just ignoring, deleting, or blocking the numbers with fraudulent or spam messages,” Poe said in her privilege speech.
“We now have in our hands the means to unmask the criminals who have been hiding for so long under the protection of anonymity and to bring them to justice,” she added.
Senate Bill 1310 intends to reduce mobile phone and electronic communication-aided crimes by mandating all mobile phone users to register their SIMs or eSIMs by presenting government-issued identification and documents.
Under the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s regulation, telecommunications companies (telcos) will be tasked to protect the personal information of subscribers.
The version approved by the House of Representatives levies fines ranging from PHP5,000 to PHP1 million on telcos, their authorized SIM card sellers, and even government workers who fail to comply with the law.
Before it is submitted for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature, the two versions of the bill will be merged in a bicameral conference.
