The National Telecommunications Commission was urged to enforce stricter supervision of telecommunication providers when it comes to the implementation of the SIM registration law in the country. 

During a Senate panel deliberation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)’s 2025 proposed budget on Thursday, Senator Win Gatchalian lamented that cellular SIMs had been rampantly used by cybercriminals, including by those who work for the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) industry.

Gatchalian, who is also the co-author of the SIM Registration Act, stressed the NTC, as an attached agency of DICT, should be able to prevent fraudulent registration of SIMs by strictly overseeing telcos in their anti-scamming initiatives. 

“We want the NTC to crack the whip if telcos are not following the law and NTC rules. That's the only way we can instill discipline because, for them, a SIM card sold means revenue,” he said. 

Gatchalian lamented that text scams continued ballooning amid the lenient implementation of the SIM registration law.

“The root of the problem is easy access to SIM cards despite our SIM registration law. There is so much disappointment with its implementation,” he said. 

“The NTC should prevent criminals from purchasing thousands of SIM cards and to really implement the true spirit of the law which is to allow legitimate people with good intentions to buy SIM cards. I believe the law is adequate and it is in the implementation of the law where the problem lies,” he added. 

In response, the NTC said it had already issued verification guidelines to enable telcos to put up a system that would prevent fraudulent registration of SIM. These guidelines include comparing submitted data with ID information using advanced technology such as facial recognition and facial matching.

However, the result of the simulation conducted by the National Privacy Commission showed that Smart Communications was the only telco that successfully prevented fraudulent SIM registration.

Gatchalian said other telcos in the country should do the same and should adopt Smart's technology to effectively implement SIM registration law on their respective systems. 

“We don't want fraudulent SIM registration to happen over and over again,” he said.