SIM card registration extended, group awaits SC decision

Photo from Philippine Star

The Junk SIM Registration Network will wait for the Supreme Court's ruling declaring the SIM Registration law illegal, following the 90-day extension approved by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

In an exclusive interview with Six Stars Capitol, Maded Batara III, a developer and current spokesperson of Junk SIM Registration Network, said that they were hoping for the Supreme Court to grant their request for a temporary restraining order to stop or suspend the implementation of the SIM Registration Law.

“We hope that the SC will hear our petition and seriously consider our arguments and we hope that this also puts ample pressure on the NCT and DICT to consider the concerns of many groups ever since the law was first proposed in Congress,” said Batara.

The SIM Card Registration Law is said to safeguard the data of Filipinos from hackers, scammers, and fraudulent actors which was persistent in unregistered SIM cards.

Under this mandate, all public telecommunications entities (PTEs), in coordination with government agencies such as the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) will require FIlipinos to register their SIM cards before the given deadline.

However on April 17, Batara among other petitions challenged the SIM Card Registration law as “unconstitutional” due to the following reasons he stated:

1. The SIM Card Registration Law threatens the people’s rights to freedom of expression,

2. It violates the people’s rights against unreasonable seizures,

3. It restricts the people’s free access supports and,

4. It violates the people’s right to assert their own personal identity.

Furthermore, Batara labeled the SIM Registration law as “anti-poor.”

“Malinaw na anti-poor ang SIM Registration law because of the many issues and barriers surrounding people registering to the portal… issues of lacking documentations or valid IDs… and lack of access to stable internet or a smartphone,” Batara said.

“Talagang laughable at best ‘yung kanilang efforts since they barely reached millions of Filipinos who lived in remote areas,” Batara added, citing that 90 million SIMs were unregistered.

With or without the extended deadline as announced by Justice Secretary Remulla, Batara said that they are ready “by any means necessary” to pressure the NTC.

“Even if the deadline comes into full effect… the SIM registration law comes into full effect, we are ready to march whether directly to the streets or to move forward with our petitions in the courts,” Batara said.

The SIM Card Registration Act, in its first form, was initially vetoed by former president Rodrigo Duterte in April 2022 after he found that there were certain aspects of the bill that needed to be “discussed” or “studied.”

In September 2022, the SIM card Registration bill passed the Senate's second reading after a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives.

A month later, Marcos signed the SIM Card Registration Act. The SIM Registration Act was the first law that he signed under his administration.

by: Jia Bote