NTC fails to carry out SIM registration law against POGOs — Sen. Gatchalian

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) failed to implement the provisions of SIM registration law leading scammers involved in illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to perpetrate fraudulent activities, Senator Win Gatchalian said Sunday. 

Gatchalian blamed the NTC for being lenient in implementing the SIM registration law, resulting in ballooning scamming activities through text messaging. 

“The NTC should do its job of ensuring effective implementation of the SIM registration law,” he said. 

Gatchalian lamented that the goal of the legislation “is to provide accountability for those SIM card users” and to support law enforcement in tracking perpetrators of crimes committed through phones.

“But because the NTC has apparently forgotten its responsibility, scammers in the POGO industry continue to use SIM cards unabatedly,” he said. 

Gatchalian cited that the POGOs recently subjected to police raids have one common denominator “which is the discovery of a significant number of SIM cards that are being used for fraud and scamming purposes.”

“This is true in the case of the raids conducted against Smartweb Technology Corp. in Pasay City, Zun Yuan Technology located in Bamban, Tarlac, and Lucky South 99 which straddles Porac and Angeles City in Pampanga,” he stressed. 

The senator also noted that the authorities discovered SIM cards, bearing false identities, along with various phones and scripts for scamming purposes during the raid at a Zun Yuan POGO hub in Bamban. 

“Authorities said the SIM cards were being used in undertaking love scams, cryptocurrency scams, and other investment scams,” Gatchalian underscored. 

Aside from SIM cards, he said the search and seizure operations inside the Lucky South 99 also yielded various phone devices, drugs, and torture devices.

Gatchalian pressed that Republic Act 11934 or the SIM Card Registration Act was legislated into law “with the main objective of reducing, if not eliminating, scams perpetrated through text or online messages.”

He noted that since the law was enacted on 10 October 2022, “scamming activities have risen significantly, contrary to expectations.”