THE Senate passed on second reading Tuesday a bill imposing registration of cell phone SIM cards, inching closer to a a final vote on a proposed law requiring mandatory listing of cellular phone owners.
Once it is assed into law, all cell phone owners, both prepaid or post-paid, will be obliged to register their cellphones, making mandatory registration of all subscriber identification module (SIM) card for all cellphone owners.
Under Senate Bill 2395, both sellers and resellers of SIM cards will be required to take down the name, address and birthday of the SIM card owner as well as the SIM card buyer, who will also be required to produce government-issued ID or other proof of identity.
It also provides that “active” SIM cards are required to register within one year once the enabling legislation is passed into law.
As proposed, active SIM cards or those in use are obliged to be registered within one year soon as the bill is passed into law.
The proposed law also provides that those who fail to register SIM cards can be “deactivated” or cut off by the telecommunication company or telco.
It adds that the name and information about the buyer will be provided by the public telecommunications entity or telco that will input the details in a centralized database where access will be provided to the National Telecommunications Commission and Department of Information and Communications Technology.
However, the information about the SIM card buyer will be treated as confidential and cannot be divulged unless required by a court or a legitimate investigation.
As provided in SB 2395, a SIM card buyer who provides a fake name or information can be jailed for six to 12 years, while the seller or reseller who illegally discloses information will be fined as much as P200,000.
At the same time, the proposal added a provision obliging social media account providers to require a real name and phone number of the creator of the social media account.
According to Senator Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Service that endorsed the proposal, the objective is to neutralize crimes committed using cellphones and other electronic devices, such as terrorism, text scam, unsolicited-indecent-at-obscene text messages, libel, bank fraud, trolling, anonymous online defamation, fake news and digital disinformation.
The Senate passage of the bill on third and final reading will pave the way for a bicameral conference committee to be convened, as a counterpart bill has been passed by the House of Representatives.
