Vanne Elaine Terrazola
Telecommunications and privacy experts warned the Senate on Wednesday that the proposed mandatory SIM card registration could pose risks to free speech and privacy.
The Senate public services committee led by Senator Grace Poe discussed the bills seeking to require prepaid mobile phone users to register their subscriber identity module, or SIM cards, as a way to deter crimes.
“We must be careful in considering the implementation of SIM registration,” engineer Pierre Galla, founder of internet and ICT rights advocacy group Democracy.Net.Ph, said during the hearing.
While 155 countries have already adopted the mandatory SIM registration, Galla said that the proposal might end up being “useless and an additional problem, instead of a solution.”
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