Ilocos officials told: Up SIM registration

By Leilanie Adriano 

LAOAG CITY – The Sangguniang Panlalawigan or provincial board of Ilocos Norte Monday asked the 21 towns and two cities of Ilocos Norte to speed up the SIM registration rollout, particularly in remote areas.
    “We need to reach out to the Barangays and help people to register their sim cards,” said provincial board member Giancarlo Angelo S. Crisostomo, chair of the committee on peace and order and the committee on transportation and communication, as he pushed Provincial Resolution No. 2023-02-107 asking all local government leaders to accelerate the implementation of the SIM Registration, and to ensure the April 26, 2023 deadline is met.
    Crisostomo said there is a need to increase the current pace of daily registration following reports that only 33,313,839 SIM cards have been registered or 19.71 percent of the total 168,977,773 existing subscribers, as of Feb. 16.
    Under the law, all existing and new subscribers are required to register their SIM cards until April 26 of this year. After the announced deadline, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is allowed to extend the registration period for another 120 days.
    End-user who fails to comply with the requirements for registration within the period prescribed shall result in the automatic deactivation of the SIM. -- PNA