NTC official: We don't expect 100% SIM registration
MANILA, Philippines — A National Telecommunications Commission official said on Friday they don’t expect all active SIM cards in the Philippines will be registered.
As the April 26 registration deadline draws near, Jon Paulo Salvahan, NTC deputy commissioner explained why this was the case in an interview with state-run broadcaster PTV.
“We’re not looking at 100% registration, most likely some SIMs will not be registered for one reason or another,” he said.
The NTC reckoned that 75.5 million subscribers have logged their private information into data registries, which are supposedly safeguarded by telcos. This number is equivalent to 45% of all active users in the Philippines.
The Marcos administration kept the April 26 deadline, despite provisions in the law for a 120-day extension.
So far, Salvahan noted that from April 1 to 18, average registration clocked in at an estimated one million subscribers daily. If the national government does decide to extend registration, the NTC official noted that the 120-day extension will be enough to increase the numbers.
As it is, the state’s move to register SIM cards was met with widespread opposition from civil society groups. Criticisms hurled towards the decision that registering SIM cards in the state’s database were in violation of data protection and privacy laws.
The national government reassured the public that the data will not be used for wrongdoing, but law enforcement already warned the public of scams targetting prospective registrants. Even then, Singapore, which implemented similar measures years back, remained a hotbed of SIM-related scams.
The NTC official said subscribers who see their SIM cards deactivated automatically could still reactivate their mobile numbers five days after the April 26 deadline. As it is, the law still guarantees it. — Ramon Royandoyan
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