SIM Registration Act

The SIM Registration Act, officially designated as Republic Act No. 11934 and commonly referred to as the SIM card law, is a Philippine law mandating the registration of SIM cards before activation. Under the measure, mobile device users must register their SIM cards, whether prepaid or postpaid. The law was enacted intending to curb cybercriminal activities. The law also aims to address issues related to trolling, hate speech, and online disinformation.^[1]

SIM Registration Act
Congress of the Philippines
Long title An Act Requiring The Registration of Subscriber Identity Module
Citation	Republic Act No. 11934
Territorial extent	Philippines
Enacted by	House of Representatives of the Philippines
Enacted	September 19, 2022
Enacted by	Senate of the Philippines
Enacted	September 27, 2022
Signed by	Bongbong Marcos
Signed	October 10, 2022
Commenced	December 27, 2022
Legislative history
First chamber: House of Representatives of the Philippines
Bill title	An Act Requiring The Registration of Subscriber Identity Module Cards
Bill citation	House Bill No. 14
Introduced by	Martin Romualdez (Leyte–1st), Yedda Marie Romualdez (Tingog Sinirangan), Sandro Marcos (Ilocos Norte–1st), Jude Acidre (Tingog Sinirangan)
Introduced	June 30, 2022
First reading	September 12, 2022
Second reading	September 14, 2022
Third reading	September 20, 2022
Voting summary	250 voted for 6 voted against None abstained 56 absent
Committee report	Joint Explanation of the Bicameral Conference Committee: Annex A
Second chamber: Senate of the Philippines
Bill title	An Act Eradicating Mobile Phone or Electronic Communication-aided Criminal Activities, Regulating For This Purpose The Registration And Use of All Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) For Electronic Devices
Bill citation	Senate Bill No. 1310
Received from the House of Representatives of the Philippines	September 13, 2022
Member(s) in charge	Grace Poe
First reading	September 14, 2022
Second reading	September 19, 2022
Third reading	September 27, 2022
Voting summary	20 voted for None voted against None abstained 4 absent
Conference committee bill passed by House of Representatives of the Philippines	September 28, 2022
Conference committee bill passed by Senate of the Philippines	September 28, 2022
Status: In force

Human rights groups, media organizations, computer professionals, and labor groups have raised questions about how the law might violate rights to free speech, privacy, and due process.^[2][3]

Legislative history

18th Congress

A similar bill was initially passed in the 18th Congress but was vetoed by President Rodrigo Duterte on April 14, 2022, due to the inclusion of social media accounts, which Duterte "was constrained to disagree" with as it may "give rise to a situation of dangerous state intrusion and surveillance threatening many constitutionally protected rights".^[4]

House Bill No. 14

The bill was filed before the House of Representatives as House Bill No. 14. It passed on third and final reading on September 19, 2022, with 250 members voting for the measure while 6 voted against it.^[5]

Senate Bill No. 1310

Senator Grace Poe sponsored the measure's Senate counterpart, Senate Bill No. 1310. It passed on third and final reading on September 27, 2022, with all Senators present voting for the bill.^[6]

Republic Act No. 11934

President Bongbong Marcos signed the law on October 10, 2022.^[7][8]

Implementation

The Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the law was enacted on December 27, 2022. Postpaid subscribers are considered to already be registered with telco companies, only having to confirm the existing details already saved with the telco companies. On the other hand, prepaid subscribers are required to undergo registration through an online portal.^[9][10] During the first day of registration, users struggled to register their SIMs as telco companies faced glitches on their registration platforms.^[11] By April 23, 2023, a few days before the original deadline, about 82.8 million SIMs were registered (49.31% of total active mobile subscribers).^[12] The deadline was later extended 90 days into July 25 upon appeals by telecom companies due to low percentage of registered SIM cards.^[13]

The deactivation of unregistered SIM cards started on July 26, 2023.^[14] Subscribers were given a five-day grace period to register their SIM cards until July 30, 2023.^[15] By the end of the grace period, the NTC reported that 113,969,014 SIM cards (or 67.83% of the 168,016,400 SIM cards in circulation) were registered.^[16] A total of 54,047,386 unregistered SIM cards were deactivated, resulting in the reduction of mobile subscribers:

• Globe Telecom registered 53,727,298 subscribers (down from 86,746,672 subscribers in 2022, a total of 33,019,374 subscribers were deactivated)
• Smart Communications registered 52,500,870 subscribers (down from 66,304761 subscribers in 2022, a total of 13,803,891 subscribers were deactivated)
• Dito Telecommunity registered 7,740,346 subscribers (down from 14,964,967 subscribers in 2022, a total of 7,224,621 subscribers were deactivated)

Human rights and freedom of expression

Further information: Human rights in the Philippines, Freedom of expression in the Philippines, and Media freedom in the Philippines

Media advocacy groups and labor groups petitioned the Supreme Court of the Philippines for a temporary restraining order (TRO) for the implementation of the law, arguing that the law violates free speech, data privacy, and due process.^[17] The petition called the law a form of "constitutionally impermissible prior restraint".^[17] The Supreme Court denied the TRO petition but ordered government agencies to submit their responses to questions regarding the law's constitutionality.^[18]

Human rights groups called on Congress to repeal the law, citing issues relating to "rights to privacy, free expression and information, association, and non-discrimination in the Philippines".^[1] An online petition started by the Computer Professionals' Union challenging the law contended that the law erodes freedom of expression and could be used for mass surveillance and authoritarianism when used alongside the Philippine Anti-Terror Law.^[19]