Poe rejects PAOCC's proposal to pause online SIM registration

Senator Grace Poe on Friday rejected the idea of suspending the online registration under the SIM Registration Law as suggested by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC). 

The suggestion comes after it was discovered that fake identities and information were accepted by the system .

“The problem is not with the SIM Registration law, it's in the enforcement. The law has enough teeth against fraudsters as well as safeguards to privacy of our people,” Poe, principal sponsor of the law, said in a Viber message to reporters.

For Poe, stopping the online registration at this point is “a cop out to a problem” which can be solved by better implementation of a “well-intentioned law.”

“Concerned agencies and telcos (telecommunication companies) must be able to plug the loopholes in their effective implementation without halting registration. Backing down against scammers is not an option,” she said.

“Nasa gobyerno ang responsibilidad para mapabuti ang sistema (It is the responsibility of the government to improve the system). NTC is currently working hand-in-hand with telcos to reinforce validation measures and improve the SIM registration process,” she added.

According to Poe, they are pushing for the improvement in the verification and post-validation procedures by requiring mandatory live selfies, facial liveness, and face matching under the updated guidelines.

Likewise, Poe said they are pushing for the prohibition of the option to use stock photos or the submission of identification cards that do not match live selfies to stop fraudulent registrations.

“Hindi na makaka-register ang mga anime at matsing (Photos of anime characters and monkeys can no longer be used for the registration),” she said.

The chairperson of the Senate public services committee likewise urged the telecommunication companies to be more proactive in guarding its database and invest in technological advances to protect their subscribers.

“At the end of the day, it will not be enough to filter out fraudulent messages. To address these growing and evolving digital scams, we have to root out its source,” she pointed out.

“What is needed, as provided in the SIM Registration Act, is a concerted effort between stakeholders and relevant agencies to counter these cybercrimes at all fronts,” she added.

In an interview on Unang Balita, PAOCC executive director Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said they found and confiscated an equipment that can register up to 64 SIM cards at the same time. He said this equipment is for sale even online.

On Thursday, PAOCC demonstrated how SIM cards may be registered using anime names and photos as well as made-up addresses.

With this, SIM registration for purposes of committing cybercrime has been easy as telecommunication firms reportedly use artificial intelligence in the process.

From January to August, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said its Anti-Cybercrime Group investigated a total of 16,297 cybercrime cases.

So far, 4,902 people were victimized and 397 suspects have been arrested. —VAL, GMA Integrated News