NEWS

SIM card registration law officially takes effect

ETHAN NIVERA

The Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act has officially taken effect on December 27.

On Monday, December 12, about two weeks before the implementation of the said act, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) released the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the aforementioned act.

Under the IRR, Filipinos who use cellular services must comply with the rules and register their existing SIM cards. All SIM users have until June 27, 2023, 180 days from the effectivity of the law, to register their SIM cards before their cards face deactivation.

The database is managed by telecommunications company operators and/or public telecommunications entities (PTEs). Registration will be done through a secure platform or website provided by the telcos.

Subscribers will be asked for their full name, birth date, sex, official address, type of presented ID, and ID number. To register their SIM, a valid government-issued ID is required. Businesses, on the other hand, must provide their business name, address, and the full name of the business’ authorized signatory. Meanwhile, foreign nationals who want to register their SIM cards in the Philippines must present their passport and address.

On October 10, 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed into law the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act, also known as Republic Act No. 11934, whose primary purpose is to provide accountability to all SIM card users and to improve cyber security in the country by making it “easier to track down cyber criminals.”

Subscribers encounter several problems during registration

The country’s major mobile network providers were flooded with waves of complaints as technical errors filled the first day of registration.

Errors such as glitches, crashes, and the unavailability of the registering portals left many mobile users unable to register.

“It is clear that both telecommunications companies (Smart and Globe) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) are unprepared for this implementation,” the Junk Sim Registration Network said. ods, therefore, technical issues are expected.

The DICT added that during the testing period, mobile network carriers should be able to assess and survey what needs to be improved to make the registration process smoother.

“SIM card law may not serve its purpose,” critics claim

Although the law is meant to better improve surveillance and aid in cyber security, groups and professionals have expressed their doubt toward this claim.

Cybersecurity policy analyst Mary Grace Mirandilla-Santos, the bill may do more harm than good.

“SIM registration has the potential to put the security, privacy, and welfare of citizens at risk. Experiences from other developing countries and the European Union show that SIM card registration may pose more risks than benefits to citizens,” Mirandilla-Santos said.

Data Privacy Lawyer Atty. Maria Cecilia Soria said she “isn’t that optimistic” about the said purpose of the law. perpetrators and build a good case to have the people convicted. It’s only when they see people arrested and convicted that there will be some type of deterrent, and as long as we don’t see that, I really am not optimistic that this law will be able to stop SMS scams and spams,” Soria said.

Asked if the Philippines really needed the SIM card registration law, Soria immediately answered “no”.

“As a lot of digital rights activists have been pointing out, the experience of other countries has shown that it does not really prevent scams and spams conducted over SMS. There was a country in Southeast Asia (Indonesia) whose SIM database was hacked. We are creating burdens all around, basically,” she stated.

“We have estimated 180 million subscribers, so how will we determine the scammers? In order to deter the scammers, we will need to burden 180 million people and require them to register, require telcos to build databases and to continually protect these databases,” she added.

Findings show that mandatory SIM card registration policies adopted by several countries including Canada and Ireland were “inefficient.” Mexico also had the said SIM card registration policy in 2009, but removed it after it was discovered to be “ineffective.” [R]

GenTri youth attend 10th Youth Leaders Summit JOSHUA NOCON

Every year, the City Government of General Trias organizes a youth summit where young citizens from the various schools, universities. and youth organizations of General Trias get the chance to develop their leadership skills.

The summit held in the General Trias Cultural and Convention Center this December 19, 2022, officially marked the 10th edition of the project with the theme “Let’s Join Forces for Empowered Youth Leaders of GenTri.”

Over 900 youth leaders took part in the event, which was headed by Mayor Luis “Jon-Jon” Ferrer, Congressman Antonio “Ony” Ferrer, Vice Mayor Jonas Labuguen, and members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod and City Youth Development Office.

Starting off the discussions about leadership, four of the winners of Binibining GenTri 2022 walked on the stage to give their own messages and motivation to the audience, which was shortly followed by a question-and-answer session.

They comprised of 4th runner-up Argie Ereño, 3rd runner-up Trishia Lanuzo, 1st runner-up Leina Ann Arnes, and lastly, Binibining GenTri 2022, Atasha Reign Parani, who inspired the youth with her words, “I’m young, but I’m capable of so many things.”

This was followed by the introduction of author and motivational speaker Arun Gogna who focused on the importance of happy relationships.

He shared stories, experiences, and lessons about having happy relationships with oneself, one’s family, friends, and God, highlighting how these relationships can affect someone’s outlook in life, especially the relationship with oneself. “The way you look at yourself is the way you live your life,” Gogna emphasized.

In the latter part of the event, Mayor Jon-Jon motivated the youth leaders to speak up for their needs and be the “voice of the youth,” ending his talk by thanking the attendees for their participation and encouraging them to keep engaging in youth leadership activities like the summit.

Finally, City Youth Development Office Head Lhen Muralla Kempiz, who has overseen the summit ever since the first edition, also shared some words to the youth.

She expressed her gratitude to everyone who attended and those who made the project possible, and reminded the attendees that the lessons learned that day should not only be kept to themselves but enacted and shared to their fellow youth in order to open the minds of those around them.

Besides being the 10th year of the summit, this event is also the first in-person summit since the 8th edition in 2019.

In 2020, the youth summit was halted by the pandemic, and last year, in September of 2021, the 9th summit was held virtually through various social platforms.

The General Trias Youth Leaders Summit is expected to remain as an annual event and continue to serve as a platform for inspiring young people to become great leaders in the future.[R]

yjjjj “Crime incidents dropped by 7.58% this year,” says PNP

ETHAN NIVERA

PNP Public Information Office Chief Col. Redrido Maranan said only 12,031 “focus” crimes were recorded all throughout the country from August 3 to November 30.

The percentage is 7.58% lower as compared to last year’s record, with 13,081 crimes recorded during the same period.

According to Maranan, Luzon registered the biggest drop with 8.67% (from 7,568 to 6,912). This was followed by Mindanao with 6.57% (from 2,696 to 2,519), and Visayas with a drop of 5.59% (from 2,754 to 2,600).

The focus crimes recorded were murder, homicide, physical injury, robbery and theft, vehicle and motorcycle theft, and rape. [R]

Senate panel to investigate 44 million RAJ REMMOR CRUZ doses of Covid vaccine wasted

The Blue Ribbon Committee of the Senate is ready to investigate closely what happened to the 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine wasted.

Senator Francis Tolentino, the head of the committee, stated that the investigation will be done through an executive session as the Department of Health brought up the matter of the non-disclosure agreement with the manufacturers of the vaccine.

“We will hold an executive session to discuss what happened in the 44 million doses wastage… We will investigate which are these 44 million doses, the fund, the brands, and where they were sent so that in the future, the government will have the right policy so that it will not happen again,” Tolentino stated in a radio interview.

The senator led the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on the motu proprio investigation into the non-disclosure by and/or refusal of the DOH to declare the details of the vaccine procurement contracts on the alleged reason of a true NDA. ernment funds were not used in buying vaccines that are expired.

Tolentino also said that with the committee hearings, the DOH promised to submit to the Commission on Audit (COA) all the necessary documents for audit purposes.

He would also add that the solicitor general, the statutory counsel of the government, as part of the next procurement of the COVID-19 vaccines help investigate the deal.

“Because they will buy the bivalent again, I said to do the process with a lawyer, the government, the SolGen, so that the contract can be reviewed,” Tolentino told reporters.

He also said that he has not yet seen the contract in the Covid-19 procurement.

The senator noted that there would be two more executive sessions to “make everything transparent for the people to know why the 44 million doses were wasted.”

DOH officer-in-charge Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire stated that the DOH inventories strongly implied that the bulk of the wastage came from the procurement made by the private sector.

“For vaccine wastage and the bulk of the 44 million received, of these in our inventories, mostly comes from the procurement of the private sector, which is around 44.82 percent of their procured vaccines and coming from the local government units, which is around 33.34 percent of their procured vaccines,” Vergeire stated.

“If we look at our current inventories, the national government procurement was only 2.97 percent out of the total number that we have procured, which is around 134 million doses that we have procured, only around 2.9 million have expired. From this the estimated amount of wastage among the national government-procured vaccines corresponds only to P1.99 billion if we are to equate or estimate this at P500 per dose,” Tolentino stated.

Vergeire made it clear that the DOH does not have any problem being subjected to audits.

“We are very much willing to be subjected to audits. In fact, the Department of Health specifically communicated officially to the Commission on Audit for this specific audience that can be done for our national vaccine deployment program,” she stated. [R]

PHOTO SOURCE | GMA NEWS