Cell phone registration may legalize wiretapping, says group

Registration of SIM (subscriber identity module) cards and cellular phones, which has been proposed by a newly formed Malacañang task force, may be a prelude to legalized mass wiretapping, consumer group TXTPower said on Saturday. “It is not farfetched that President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo, whose cell phone was wiretapped in 2004, may want to wiretap her critics en masse through this task force. Meanwhile, the relatives of the murdered victims of cell-phone theft are not rendered justice due them," said TXTPower convenor Anthony Ian Cruz. Cruz noted that the registration scheme, which will affect some 40 million subscribers, was proposed by the deputy national security adviser, Virtus Gil, is head of Task Force Aurora, created last year to streamline frontline services. Gil, a former police general, was deputy chief for operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP), before he was appointed deputy national security adviser and head of Task Force Aurora. Gil's superior is Norberto Gonzales, whom critics say is an influential insider who's adept at political power play. “Cell phone theft is not a national security problem but a police problem," Cruz said. "Why put Norberto Gonzales’s deputy as task force chief? Can’t the new PNP chief stamp out cell-phone theft? Or is the President carrying on her conspiracy to harass and violate the rights of her opponents?" he added. According to an August 17 report of the Philippine Information Agency, Mrs. Arroyo ordered Gil to run after cellphone thieves after he presented a proposal for the setting up of a Cellular Phone Registration System (CPRS) at the August 15 meeting of the Export Development Council in Malacañang. The task force will have police and operational powers" to curb the incidents of cellphone snatching, which have become prevalent, especially in Metro Manila. But the TXTPower convenor said on Saturday that even if the CRS pushes through authorities should obtain a proper court order to wiretap phones of suspected members of kidnap rings and suspected terrorists. “Legal shortcuts, such as the CRS, are ineffective, unconstitutional, and destroys whatever trust and confidence the public has for the government," Cruz added. In defense of his proposal, Gil said on Saturday that it will protect subscribers from prank calls and threats, and even text-based scams. In an interview on dzRH radio, Gil said the CRS is part of “police action" where a phone, and not the SIM card, can be blocked if it is reported as stolen. “All subscribers need is to show proof of ownership," he said in an interview on dzRH radio. He also sidestepped Cruz’s claim that subscribers in the provinces will suffer inconvenience as they have to travel all the way to the National Telecommunications Office in Quezon City to register their phones. “The NTC has offices in the provinces," he said. Still, Cruz said the task force and the CRS could be new tools for stifling dissent against government, especially now that texting has become a quick and effective tool for political dissent. According to him, Mrs. Arroyo, first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and their allies are becoming butts of a new wave of text jokes in the aftermath of the impeachment and other political issues. The CRS is part of a supposed plan that also involves mandatory registration of SIM cards and cell phones as a way to curb cell-phone theft. But Cruz said such a move “makes cell-phone thieves happy" and will only be “dangerous to civil liberties." He added cell-phone-related thefts and murders continue because of the incompetence of the Philippine National Police in running after, prosecuting and convicting thieves and syndicates. Such impunity cannot be solved with the proposed plan to require mandatory registration, he said. “What the President should do is to order the PNP to catch, prosecute, and convict the cell-phone thieves, bust cell-phone syndicates, and to investigate PNP personnel suspected of protecting them. Cell-phone theft has become a new criminal industry because the inutile PNP allowed it to become so," he said. - GMANews.TV