DICT to telcos: Revalidate SIM database using national ID

MANILA, Philippines —  The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will ask telecommunication companies (telcos) to revalidate their subscriber identity module (SIM) card registration database by getting their subscribers to update their identification with their digital national IDs.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum yesterday, ICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said they support a recent pronouncement of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla on the need for telcos to plug the gap created during the implementation of the SIM Card Registration Law in 2022.

Uy admitted that there was a loophole found by telcos and online scam syndicates to anomalously register SIM cards when telcos accepted all IDs presented for SIM card registration.

“There was a bit of a gap in the implementation of registration because we lowered the standard on identity, we lowered the standard on what valid IDs can be used to register,” Uy said.

In the revalidation of the SIM card registration database of telcos, namely Smart Communications, Globe Telecom and Dito Telecommunity, Uy said SIM cardholders are to be required to submit their digital national IDs as a requirement to keep their registration and maintain their service.

He said that their figures show that 85 million Filipinos had already secured their digital national IDs.

According to him, they do not see the need for an amendment to the SIM Card Registration Law or an entire new law to implement the revalidation.

Uy had issued Department Order 78 on Aug. 5 last year, which formed the SIM card registration annual audit task force that will conduct verification of the authenticity of the subscriber identities enrolled in the registry of telcos using the national ID system.

He said the annual audit was called for under Republic Act 11934, or the SIM Card Registration Law, which had also mandated the DICT to establish an annual audit on the compliance of public telecommunications entities with information security standards.