‘NO EXTENSION’: NTC-6 urges public to register SIM cards before deadline

By John Noel E. Herrera

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC)-6 reminded mobile phone users in the region to register their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards as the April 26, 2023 deadline nears.

Atty. Deo Virgil Tan, NTC-6 legal officer, said the public should register their SIM cards as Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Anna Mae Lamentillo earlier announced that there would be no extension to the deadline.

“Two days ago kay ang jurisdiction whether may extension for another 120 days or wala, ara na ya sa DICT, hindi sa NTC. So two days ago, si Undersecretary Lamentillo nga wala kuno extension, so deadline is still on April 26, 2023,” Tan said in an interview with Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

“Ang DICT abi ang naga-assess whether there is a need to extend, ang NTC ya ga-implement sang registration, so sa ila ang power to declare,” he added.

Tan stressed that individuals who will fail to register their SIM cards will face contact deactivation as stated in the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act (RA) No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act.

“For old SIMs, if you want to continue using your (contact) number dapat ina ipa-register kay pag-abot sang deadline, i-deactivate gid namon na ang unregistered SIM. Kun ma-deactivate imo SIM after deadline, you have five days to reactivate it, that is your last chance,” Tan said.

He noted that the interface of Public Telecommunication Entities’ (PTEs) online portals is now easy to access as PTEs have already improved them after some mobile users experienced glitches and technical difficulties during the first weeks of implementation.

“Gin-optimize na ini sang mga telcos para maging hapos, secure and user-friendly. So, sang day one lang gid to daw nagkaproblema kay damo gid abi ang nag register nga dungan,” Tan said.

The data and privacy of the users are also safe and they should not worry as the cyber security of the PTEs “are within the standards of DICT.”

“Amu man na ang aton ginapahibalo nga hind mag-worry kay as long as authorized telcos ang ginatagaan niyo sang data, secured ina, kay ang aton cyber security within the standards of DICT and for disclosure of information, it requires a subpoena from a competent authority which is the court,” Tan explained.

NTC-6 also conducted facilitated sim card registration in remote areas in the region where users were struggling to access the online portals due to low internet connectivity.

Tan said that based on the latest consolidated data reported by PTEs, around 58 million SIMs that were registered so far, equivalent to only around 34 percent of the total 168,977,777 subscribers nationwide.

“Pero hindi pa naton abi na mabal-an kay ang data wala pa sa amon, pero kung magtapos na ang registration, we will have that data kung pila gid man ang sa Western Visayas ang nakaparegister,” Tan added, noting that the number of registered SIM cards in the region is not available so far.

The Republic Act (RA) No. 11934 or the SIM Registration Act was the first law signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. under his administration and it aims to help law enforcement authorities “track perpetrators of crimes committed through phones” and become an effective means of regulating the issuance of SIM cards to curb the spread of spam and scam text messages in the country.