ILOILO – The positive impact of Republic Act (RA) 11934, or the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) Registration Act, is already being felt.
Since its implementation on Dec. 27, 2022, no one came to the regional office of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in Barangay Quintin Salas, Jaro, Iloilo City to complain of having been victimized by text scams, according to NTC-6 officer-in-charge director Leah Doromal.
“Nagbuhin gid man. Naghagan-hagan na gid ya, kag na-feel man namon diri sa Region 6 kay mabal-an man naton ina sa complainants nga nabaton diri sa office,” Doromal said in an interview with Panay News yesterday.
She added that before the SIM registration, “Kung kaisa may naga-abot daw halos nagadulolongan sa isa ka adlaw. Pero subong dugay na nga wala sang naga-complain kag kung may ara man siguro sa isa ka bulan duha.”
With RA 11934, according to Doromal, it is easy to trace and identify the owner of the SIM card used in text scams, which is why scammers are becoming fewer for fear of being held liable for criminal activities.
However, Doromal is also considering the possibility that there are those directly sending complaints to the NTC central office through their website, https://ntc.gov.ph/.
For its part, NTC-6 has an official Facebook page, NTC Region VI, where the public can send complaints, which will be catered to by Atty. Deo Virgil Tan, legal officer of NTC-6.
Most of the complaints about text scams Ilonggos receive are about winning a raffle even without joining one and being asked for a small amount to get the prize. The second is about offering bank loans by clicking a link that is directed to a website asking for sensitive information and bank details.
Doromal hopes that the SIM card registration will completely eradicate text scams.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. recently commended the implementation of SIM card registration, which resulted in 93.3 percent fewer text scam complaints.
On his official Facebook page and Twitter account, Marcos said this showed that the digital space in the Philippines is becoming “safer” against emerging cyber threats, vulnerabilities and other online criminal activities.
The President said, “93.3 percent ang ibinaba ng mga reklamong natatanggap ng National Telecommunications Office simula ng ating ipatupad ang SIM Card Registration Act.”
“Unti-unti nang nagiging mas ligtas ang ating digital space kaya naman patuloy naming inaanyayahan ang lahat na mag-register na para sa panatag na pagne-negosyo, pagtatrabaho at pamumuhay,” he added.
Lawyer Andres Castelar Jr., NTC legal branch officer-in-charge, said text scam complaints went down to 100 per day from 1,500 before the effectivity of the SIM card registration.
Castelar added text scam complaints were expected to further decline once all SIM cards were registered in the system.
Grab the 90 days SIM reg extension
Doromal encouraged Ilonggos to grab the opportunity to have their SIM registered.
The deadline originally scheduled for April 26 was extended for another 90 days by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Those who do not know how to register or do not have access to the internet could get assistance from relatives or the technical personnel of the NTC-6.
“Kon puede magpa-rehistro na kamo. Indi na paghulaton naton ang deadline kay wala na kita sang another extension, it is the last period na para sa aton SIM registration,” said Doromal.
Here are the links to remember for the SIM card registration:
* for DITO subscribers – https://dito.ph/RegisterDITO
* for Globe subscribers – https://new.globe.com.ph/simreg
* for Smart subscribers – https://smart.com.ph/simreg
As of April 28, there were 93,092,462 SIMS registered, or 55.41 percent of the 168,016,400 subscribers as of Dec. 2022.
Below is the breakdown:
* DITO – 6,200,293
* Globe – 42,951,294
* Smart – 43,940,875. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency)/PN
