The National Bureau of Investigation — in cooperation with Globe Telecom, Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group and the National Telecommunications Commission — conducted a sting operation that led to the arrest of an individual allegedly selling GCash-registered SIM cards.
The suspect — identified as Mark Deo Antang, a resident of Camarin, Caloocan City, was arrested in entrapment operations on 14 September where he was caught red handed selling Globe and TM SIM cards with verified GCash accounts.
Antang faces charges on violation of Republic Act 10175 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, Section 4 of which classifies Misuse of Devices as a cybercrime offense.
Globe Group Chief Legal Counsel Froilan Castelo thanked the NTC under the leadership of Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba, the NBI and the PNP ACG, for the effort in the entrapment operations.
"People who sell GCash-registered SIM cards enable criminality by being accessories to fraud. We will not relent in this campaign," said Castelo.
Cordoba, on the other hand, said that the arrest of Antang is a welcome development in the government's drive against the proliferation of text scams and cybercrime in the country.
"With systems now in place and the solid cooperation among various government agencies and telcos in fighting text scams and cybercrime, law enforcement efforts should now lead to more arrests," said Cordoba.
Telcos and government agencies are united in saying that the passage of a SIM Card Law will greatly benefit the public by halting the increase in text scams and other cybercrimes.
All parties have expressed their full support to the SIM Card Registration bills pushed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez, House ICT Chair Toby Tiangco, Senate President Migz Zubiri and Senate Public Service chair Grace Poe.