MANILA, Philippines — An experiment by the National Bureau of Investigation has found that SIM cards may be registered even with a photo of an animal, prompting lawmakers to question whether the newly rolled out SIM registration system can prevent fake transactions.
During a hearing by the Senate public services committee on Tuesday, NBI Cybercrime Division chief Jeremy Lotoc said they attempted to register newly bought SIM cards from different telcos using fake IDs bearing the face of an animal — a smiling monkey in particular.
These were still accepted by the SIM registration system, Lotoc said.
Lotoc said their investigation shows that fake government IDs can still be used to register SIM cards, making it difficult for authorities to identify the individuals behind scams despite the law.
“The issue we have is that prior to the implementation of the law, there were already fraudulent identities in existence. In fact, as of the moment, they still exist,” Lotoc said.
To recall, proponents of the SIM Card Registration Act said the law would increase accountability in the use of SIM cards and allow law enforcers to identify those committing crimes committed through phones.
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said it should be "common sense" for telecommunications companies to reject SIM card applications with a fake ID, especially one bearing a monkey's face.
In response, a representative of Globe Telecom Inc., one of the country's largest mobile networks, said the SIM registration law would be easier to implement if all Filipinos already completed their application for a national ID.
They also explained that applications for SIM registration go "directly to (the) system," which means they don't see each actual application.
A representative of Smart, meanwhile, said that they employ processes to verify submitted information and data, including the use of optical character recognition technology.
When asked if Smart's system would accept applications with a photo of a monkey, the representative said that there have been technical glitches.
Public services committee chairperson Sen. Grace Poe said that the implementing rules and regulations of the law can be tweaked to include facial recognition — a feature already included in Dito’s system.
“It's actually looking like what we have now is not really sufficient so we will have to go back to the drawing board… With the cooperation of the NTC, maybe we can amend the IRR,” Poe added.