Requiring owners of prepaid mobile phones to register their subscriber identity modules (SIM) cards may not necessarily be a deterrent to crime, a militant consumer group said.
TXTPower said that while registration is attractive in theory, it may not go beyond providing "false hopes" of curbing crime as criminals will find a way to defeat it.
"In theory, SIM card registration is attractive and seems to be a good option. But, upon closer study, it is not a smart thing to do. Criminals always want to be steps ahead and we predict they could easily go around the system through the use of lost, fake and stolen IDs to register SIM cards, like what they have done in many countries where authorities also gave their citizens false hopes," the group said in a statement posted on its website.
"Are the proponents expecting criminals and terrorists to use their own IDs to register SIM cards for use in nefarious activities? Now that Congress is again contemplating about it, these law breakers are already planning alternative ways to communicate and to trigger their bombs. We need our lawmakers and law enforcers to be smarter than how they have so far shown," it added.
Earlier this week, Sen. Vicente Sotto III pushed for the mandatory registration of SIM cards in the wake of the bombing of a bus in Makati City, where the bomb used a cell phone as a triggering device. Five people were killed in the incident.
Proponents of the registration also said registering SIM cards will help authorities pinpoint criminals if the cards are used in crimes.
President Benigno Aquino III, however, has expressed apprehension over the proposal, noting privacy concerns.
"[The proposal] needs a little bit of study," Aquino told reporters after attending the 400th anniversary of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila last Wednesday. "There should be a middle ground where the need for security and the constitutional right of privacy can both be respected and addressed."
Identity theft
In addition, TXTPower said that in countries where SIM card registration is mandatory such as in Africa, authorities have reported a spate of cases of identity theft, and the use of stolen or lost IDs by criminal elements to cheat the system.
"Based on the bills filed in the House and the Senate, the SIM card registration could only work if all the available and operational SIM cards are registered, with absolutely no exceptions or exemptions. This seems impossible to accomplish considering the sheer number of SIM cards that are now used locally by citizens and internationally by our OFWs and expats," TXTPower said.
It said one single unregistered or falsely registered SIM card will ruin a system that would purportedly identify criminals and terrorists.
The group proposed instead that the funds for SIM card registration go instead to building a state-of-the-art criminal forensics laboratory, and the hiring and training of competent forensics experts and crime investigators.
"Authorities must improve and intensify their intelligence work, shake off and punish scalawags who are in cahoots with criminals, and solve crimes, big and small, to improve the peace and order situation and thereafter restore public confidence in the police," said the group.
TXTPower had opposed mandatory SIM card registration since it was first proposed in the House of Representatives. — RSJ
