Hearings on SIM card registration begin at House of Rep

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The House of Representatives Committee on Information and Communications Technology held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss a measure which, if implemented, will require mobile phone users to register their SIM cards.

Such a measure has been proposed in order to put an end to scams and criminal activity perpetrated via text messages, as well as harassing messages sent via SMS; and in order to aid law enforcers to trace such crimes or cases of abuse.

Committee chairman and Rizal Rep. Joey Roy Duavit said this was the period for debating the merits of the bill and proposing amendments; such as how to avoid passing to the user the cost of registering their SIM card.

At Wednesday’s hearing, representatives from two major telecommunications firms said that their respective companies are ready to cooperate with the proposed measure, noting, as well, that their websites give subscribers a chance to report spam or scam messages

It is hoped that if SIM registration is enacted, the incidences of text scams will be significantly reduced; as will the use of cellphones for criminal activity such as kidnapping, or bomb threats.