MANILA – A group has asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order on the implementation of a law that requires the registration of SIM cards.

The group Junk SIM Registration Network argued that the law violates freedom of expression and right to privacy.

The group's spokesperson Maded Batara III said the public is compelled to give government and telcos their phone numbers, name, and other personal information, with the risk that these could be harvested by criminals.

Those who fail to register their SIMs will "forever be silenced" and lose access to mobile services, which they rely on to communicate with family members, co-workers, and even doctors, he told ANC’s Rundown.

Batara also noted that the SIM Card Registration Law could violate the right to unreasonable searches and seizures as it would provide a registry of phone numbers that the police or military can access with a subpoena.

“Some of our petitioners can attest to this, that police and the military can just unnecessarily harass people without even putting them through due process in order to make them give up the fight or maybe into scare them into not doing something. And allowing just normal police and military that access is dangerous,” Batara said.

“We believe that it opens up avenues to the government actually intruding on the people’s right to privacy, creating this so-called surveillance state where government can essentially see all your daily activities,” he added.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said the law would regulate the issuance of SIM cards to curb the spread of spam text messages and scams.

But Batara argued, “If scams are the problem, then why not tackle the root cause of scams?”

“Why do people fall victims to scams in the first place? Is there enough education, is there enough insurance that the Data Privacy Act of 2012, which is supposed to protect our data, actually holds government institutions and private institutions accountable for any leaks with regards to the data that we give them?”

“That is the way to tackle scams, not over-broad provisions,” he said.

• SIM card registration could lead to rise in extortion, other crimes, warns group
• Group holds protest at NTC to call for SIM registration suspension

Regulators and stakeholders are studying the possible extension of the SIM registration deadline on April 26, the National Telecommunications Commission said on Monday.

All the country's major telco players have urged the government to extend the deadline, citing the lack of IDs and digital capabilities as roadblocks to SIM registration.

— ANC, 18 April 2023