Fighting the indifference to mobile phone thefts

His is perhaps a seemingly long and lonely battle but Jun Lozada, proponent of the first advocacy group against mobile phone crimes in the country, continues with his crusade to save precious lives and property two years since he founded Isa Lang or I Save A Life Advocacy for National Guidance.

Isa Lang was an offshoot of Lozada’s own quest for justice and a personal cause to stop senseless killings. His brother was killed during a botched police operation in 2001.

News of two young students murdered a year later due to mobile phone theft cemented his resolve to push for a law that will protect millions of other mobile phone users in the country.

Based on statistics from the National Telecommunications Commission in 2002 alone, an average of one mobile phone is stolen every minute or about 1,440 units each day. The data do not even include the extent of loss, including deaths and injuries caused by snatching, robbery and theft.

"We remain indifferent even as our fellowmen are getting killed or losing their property as long as we are not affected by it or as long as we want to believe that it will never happen to us," he says.

Through his website, www.isalang.ph, Lozada outlines all that needs to be done for the security of both users and their phone units. His professional background as an electronics and communications engineer led him to come up with workable solutions against phone theft.

His main take is to have all mobile phones in the country, approximately more than 20 million, registered to discourage theft. Stolen phones can be rendered useless, he says, once these are denied access to a network’s Cellular Mobile Telephone System or CMTS.

He also suggested a layer of identification to deter the use of a stolen phone for criminal activities and to trace illegal drug transaction. He did not elaborate how the latter is possible.

In fact, for the last two years, Isa Lang has been pushing for the passage of a law that will require all mobile phone operators to register their phones and introduce "whitelisting" measures as opposed to blacklisting. Total or complete blocking of a mobile phone unit falls under whitelisting.

The backbone of this law is to criminalize the reprogramming of a mobile phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IEMI), a unique 15-digit code, when it is either lost or stolen. If access to the IEMI code is denied, the unit is as good as dead.

Lozada has so far received enough support from individuals for his efforts. But what is lamentable, he says, is when a greater number of Filipinos merely shrug off the reality of the growing number of mobile phone thefts. The people’s indifference and apathy makes it more difficult as he enlists public support through an electronic-based signature campaign.

The mobile phone companies will never be of help either, says Lozada. In fact, he expects legal maneuverings from the telecommunications giants to prevent sharing of their subscribers’ IEMI list.

As the government pushes for more revenue-generating measures such as taxing SMS or text messaging, the battle against mobile phone theft and related crimes remains a battle against the giants in business and politics. But Lozada believes that no amount of legal or economic arguments can ever subordinate the value of a human life.

(Isa Lang holds office at Suite 406, CLMC bldg., EDSA East Greenhills, Mandaluyong City; tel. nos. 722-9103 or mobile 0917- 8167966; e-mail address [email protected].)