MANILA - The Senate passed a bill on mandatory SIM card registration on its third and final reading on Tuesday.

Senate Bill (SB) No. 1310 or the proposed “SIM Registration Act”, which is meant to curb cybercrimes committed via mobile phones, was passed with 20 affirmative votes, and no negative votes or abstention from senators, the Senate said.

A similar bill earlier was earlier passed by the House of Representatives.

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The Senate said the measure seeks to regulate the registration and use of SIMs by mandating subscribers to register with telecommunication entities before SIMs are activated.

"Existing subscribers must also register or risk deactivating or retiring their SIMs," the Senate statement said.

Selling stolen SIMs is also banned under the bill.

“Finally, we can now do something aside from just ignoring, deleting or blocking the numbers with fraudulent or spam messages,” said Senator Grace Poe, who sponsored the bill.

The push for SIM card registration gained fresh momentum amid the recent proliferation of "personalized" SMS scams.

Some groups however have opposed the measure saying it may compromise telco subscribers' privacy.

A similar bill was approved by lawmakers in the previous Congress but was vetoed by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

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