Solon urges DICT to review SIM Registration law

A lawmaker has urged the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to review the SIM Registration Act as text scams still prevail.

In a statement, Camarines Sur Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte suggested limiting the number of valid government-issued IDs that SIM registrants can present.

He added that authorities must improve their anti-cybercrime efforts and have better tools to arrest the people behind the texts and online scams.

"These scammers should be flushed out once and for all and, more importantly, slapped with the penalties due violators under RA 11934 (SIM Registration Act) and RA 10175, or the “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012," Villafuerte said.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian flagged the continuous proliferation of text scams in 2024 with around 600,000 victims.

However, he opposed a proposal requiring an in-person appearance for SIM registration, saying it would be inconvenient for consumers, and called for a Senate inquiry into the proliferation of text scams.  

According to caller identification service provider Whoscall, 6,157,517 text scams were reported in the Philippines in 2024. —Mariel Celine Serquiña/AOL, GMA Integrated News