MANILA – After being passed in the Senate with a unanimous vote, Senator Grace Poe is confident that Senate Bill No. 1310 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act will be passed into law within the year.
Poe, chair of the Committee on Public Services and principal sponsor of the bill, said on Wednesday she is hoping that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will sign the measure into law by October or November.
The lawmaker said the registration of SIMs will be a “big help” when it comes to fighting crimes and will serve as a deterrent for online scammers.
“It’s really more about tracing. Now, we will find out who registered that number. Even if a fictitious identity was used, at least there is a lead,” Poe said in a statement.
She recalled that when someone tried to scam Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, the perpetrator was identified and arrested after the number of the scammer was given to law enforcers.
This was after Zubiri himself disclosed to the public that a couple of scammers had targeted him.
Having obtained his personal mobile number, the scammers posed as public officials and attempted to extort money for a bogus political convention.
Zubiri, who principally authored and co-sponsored the bill, said the SIM Registration Act is a weapon to foil the evolving use of devices in criminal activities.
"As scams to harm the public rapidly change, so must the regulatory antidotes to them," the Senate President said. (PNA)