President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved Tuesday the 90-day extension of
the deadline for SIM registration, Malacañang's broadcasting arm RTVM announced
on social media.
"Failure to register within the given period of extension will result to limited SIM services from the telecommunication companies," RTVM said in a Facebook post.
Malacañang's announcement came hours after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said at the start of an inter-agency meeting on the Oriental Mindoro oil spill that the SIM registration deadline, supposedly set on April 26, was extended.
"There is a lengthy extension," said Remulla, who attended the Cabinet meeting on SIM registration. "But most of the services that come with the cellphones that are not registered will be cut off with the telcos."
"So there will be social media unavailability for those who do not register in the next 90 days," he added.
Malacañang said that Marcos directed the Department of Information and Communications Technology to make an announcement regarding the deadline extension, but it has yet to do so on its social media accounts.
Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act provides that all existing SIM users must register within 180 days from the effectivity of the law.
This can be extended by the Dept. of Information and Communications Technology by another 120 days.
The law states that failure to register the SIMs within those periods will result in its automatic deactivation, which will only be reactivated after registration.
Nothing in the law states that the government or telcos can limit access to social media if users do not register during the extension period.
Sen. Grace Poe, who shepherded the passage of the SIM Registration Act at the Senate, welcomed the extension, saying the law was "not meant to punish legitimate SIM subscribers especially those at remote areas."
"Both (the National Telecommunications Commission) and telcos must double their efforts in reaching out to subscribers in rural and remote areas. While a number of locations have been visited for remote registration, a lot more ground needs to be covered as key areas such as the Bangsamoro region have yet to be reached according to the data by NTC," Poe said in a statement.
The announcement of the extension came on the eve of the original April 26 deadline of SIM registration, when less than 50% of the country’s total active 168 million SIMs have been registered which prompted calls from some sectors to extend the deadline for registration, if not to completely scrap it.
Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy was expected to make an announcement regarding the extension of the SIM registration deadline at a news conference in Malacañang later today, following a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Prior to Tuesday, the DICT has stood pat on keeping the April 26 deadline, even though the SIM Registration Act allows the government to extend this for 120 days.
The possibility of extending the deadline for SIM registration was raised Monday in a meeting between the DICT and telecommunications companies.
The two largest telcos in the country, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have appealed to the government to extend the deadline for registration, which has been hampered by users’ lack of government-issued IDs.
The SIM Registration Act was enacted with the goal of curbing crimes committed through text messages, particularly spam and scam texts which were rampant when the proposal was being deliberated in Congress.
This drummed up public support for the law, even as civil society groups and some ICT experts warned that SIM registration might not at all be effective in reducing spam and scams as they pointed to other countries, like Singapore, where users continue to receive such messages. — with a report from Kristine Joy Patag
"Failure to register within the given period of extension will result to limited SIM services from the telecommunication companies," RTVM said in a Facebook post.
Malacañang's announcement came hours after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said at the start of an inter-agency meeting on the Oriental Mindoro oil spill that the SIM registration deadline, supposedly set on April 26, was extended.
"There is a lengthy extension," said Remulla, who attended the Cabinet meeting on SIM registration. "But most of the services that come with the cellphones that are not registered will be cut off with the telcos."
"So there will be social media unavailability for those who do not register in the next 90 days," he added.
Malacañang said that Marcos directed the Department of Information and Communications Technology to make an announcement regarding the deadline extension, but it has yet to do so on its social media accounts.
Republic Act No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act provides that all existing SIM users must register within 180 days from the effectivity of the law.
This can be extended by the Dept. of Information and Communications Technology by another 120 days.
The law states that failure to register the SIMs within those periods will result in its automatic deactivation, which will only be reactivated after registration.
Nothing in the law states that the government or telcos can limit access to social media if users do not register during the extension period.
Sen. Grace Poe, who shepherded the passage of the SIM Registration Act at the Senate, welcomed the extension, saying the law was "not meant to punish legitimate SIM subscribers especially those at remote areas."
"Both (the National Telecommunications Commission) and telcos must double their efforts in reaching out to subscribers in rural and remote areas. While a number of locations have been visited for remote registration, a lot more ground needs to be covered as key areas such as the Bangsamoro region have yet to be reached according to the data by NTC," Poe said in a statement.
The announcement of the extension came on the eve of the original April 26 deadline of SIM registration, when less than 50% of the country’s total active 168 million SIMs have been registered which prompted calls from some sectors to extend the deadline for registration, if not to completely scrap it.
Information and Communications Technology Secretary Ivan Uy was expected to make an announcement regarding the extension of the SIM registration deadline at a news conference in Malacañang later today, following a meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Prior to Tuesday, the DICT has stood pat on keeping the April 26 deadline, even though the SIM Registration Act allows the government to extend this for 120 days.
The possibility of extending the deadline for SIM registration was raised Monday in a meeting between the DICT and telecommunications companies.
The two largest telcos in the country, Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, have appealed to the government to extend the deadline for registration, which has been hampered by users’ lack of government-issued IDs.
The SIM Registration Act was enacted with the goal of curbing crimes committed through text messages, particularly spam and scam texts which were rampant when the proposal was being deliberated in Congress.
This drummed up public support for the law, even as civil society groups and some ICT experts warned that SIM registration might not at all be effective in reducing spam and scams as they pointed to other countries, like Singapore, where users continue to receive such messages. — with a report from Kristine Joy Patag
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