BAGUIO CITY — THE Supreme Court has rejected the plea of the National Union of Journalists and several other individuals for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the SIM card registration, hours after the Executive declared a 90-day extension of the April 26 registration deadline.
Instead, the SC directed the respondents to comment within 10 days on the merit of the petition seeking to declare unconstitutional Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.
SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka said the resolution was issued at Tuesday’s regular en banc session of the magistrates but no other details were made available to the media.
The petitioners, in their Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition under Rule 65 of the Rules of Civil Procedure with Prayer for Writ of Preliminary injunction and/or TRO filed last April 17, asked the Court to Issue a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction against the respondents to restrain them from implementing the law while the case is pending; declare the SIM Registration Act unconstitutional on its face for infringing Art. III Sections 1, 2, 3, and 11 of the 1987 Constitution; and order the respondent public telecommunication entities (PTEs) to cease and desist from using, storing, transferring, and processing all information gathered into the SIM Register and to destroy data already gathered.
Named respondents were the National Telecommunications Commision (NTC) , National Privacy Commission, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Education, Globe Telecom Inc., Smart Communications, Inc., PLDT Inc., Dito Telecommunity Corporation, Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc., doing business as Sun Cellular, and Cherry Mobile Communications Inc.
The SC did not give credence to the petitioners’ claim that there was a need to immediately enjoin the implementation of the law as more than 106 million other unregistered Filipinos stand to be disenfranchised through automatic deactivation of their SIMs if they fail to comply with the April 26 deadline.
On Tuesday morning, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that the THE government has decided to extend for 90 days the deadline for the registration of SIM cards which was supposed to end April 26 under the SIM Registration Act. The extension was confirmed in a press briefing later on Tuesday at Malacanang Palace.