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MANDAUE CITY, Philippines – A day before the July 25 deadline for the mandatory SIM card registration, the National Telecommunication Commission in Central Visayas (NTC-7) said that close to 40 percent of the active SIM Cards in the country are yet to be registered.
Lawyer Alan Felix Macaraya Jr., in-charge of NTC-7’s Consumer Welfare and Protection Unit, is urging owners of close to 60 million SIM cards, especially those who are from the region, to have their SIMs registered.
“All bank transanctions and e-wallets nga associated sa imo phone number, wala nay access, though dili man mawagtang imo money pero dili naka maka-access. Hasol na sa imo part magpa reactivate, mopalit ka og new SIM, imoha gihapon i-register,” said Engr. Felipe Gumalo, NTC-7’s Enforcement and Operations Division in-charge.
On Monday, July 24, NTC-7 organized an assisted SIM card registration campaign at their office compound in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City to help those who are having difficulties or do not have access to online registration.
They will continued with the campaign on Tuesday.
Macaraya said that as of July 19, about 104 million SIM cards were already registered. This represents 61.94 percent of the almost 170 million active SIM cards in the country. The remaining close to 40 percent are yet to be registered.
“That’s still very low. We are hoping that we will achieve at least 75 to 80 percent. That will be a good number,” said Macaraya.
Gumalo said that unregistered SIM cards will be deactivated, thus prohibiting its owners access to his/her e-wallet and digital banking accounts, among others.
He is urging owners to have their SIM cards registered for their protection.
Moreover, Gumala mentioned of a study conducted by their head office which shows that the proliferation of text scams dropped by at least 90 percent since the start of SIM card registration on December 27, 2022.
“Naa gihapon [ang text scams] pero minimal na jud. Dili parehas sa una [nga] kada adlaw ka bombahan og mga katulo ka messages. Karun, siguro one week o one month seldom na nga makadawat ka og ka-isa. So, it has tremendously decreased the scams, [by] mga 90 percent. That is a good indicator that we have minize the scams through cellular phone–the use of sim cards,” Macaraya said.
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