Remulla believes SIM Registration Law not that effective

Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Tuesday expressed belief that the SIM Card Registration Act is not that effective as POGO operations, which has been linked to illegal activities, persisted.

Remulla said this as he disclosed that 60% of the calls in 911 were prank calls. In his response, he mentioned that the problem in sanctioning those behind the prank calls could be linked to the SIM Card Registration Act.

''Ang problema kasi, hindi pa integrated ang national ID system sa mga telco natin. So, kaya nag-proliferate ang mga POGO dahil iyong SIM Card Registration Act na ginawa natin na hindi naging masyadong effective kasi walang national ID na attached,'' Remulla said at a Palace press briefing.

(The problem is that the national ID system is not yet integrated with the telcos. So POGOs continue to proliferate because the SIM Card Registration Act is not that effective as the national ID was not included.)

''So, minsan ang isang tao, isang daan ang SIM card niya na nabibili [sometimes one person can buy 100 SIM cards] – so, that has to be integrated also,'' he added.

It was in 2022 when President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. signed into law a measure seeking the registration of Subscriber Identity Module, which aims to promote accountability in the use of SIMs.

The SIM Registration Act or Republic Act 11934 seeks to end crimes using the platform including text and online scams by regulating the sale and the use of SIMs through mandating registration to end-users.

In June 2024, the National Telecommunications Commission made a commitment to address the concerns on POGO-related scamming activities as it admitted that the SIM Registration Law, which it said is not a "silver bullet" against messaging scams, continues to face several challenges in its implementation.

Marcos already directed the total ban of POGO operations in the country. —KG, GMA Integrated News