SIM registration proposed to trace future bombers

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday proposed the mandatory registration of SIM cards to help the anti-crime campaign of the government. “For the purpose of identifying criminals, it becomes imperative. We have to protect society," Enrile said during a Senate hearing. He said that through the mandatory registration of SIM cards, authorities would have a way of identifying the owner of a cell phone particularly if he is using a prepaid SIM card. National Telecommunications Commission chairman Ruel Canobas said the agency supports Enrile’s proposal. “I think that will address so many problems especially cellphone-related crimes," Canobas told the committee on trade and commerce. The telecommunication companies, however, were not sold on the idea due to the lack of a reliable identification system in the country. “How can we verify the identity of a person buying a SIM card? It's very easy to fake an ID," lawyer Rodolfo Salalima, Globe Telecom’s chief legal counsel, told reporters after the hearing. Smart Communications expressed the same sentiment. “We will have to address practical issues first, such as many Filipinos do not have IDs," said Smart's public affairs head Ramon Isberto said in a text message to GMANews.TV. Telecommunications companies, however, said they could help in the investigation of bombings that used cell phones as triggers by providing information on the date, time and location of calls. But first, a court order is needed before they could give such information, they said. “We are not allowed to disclose this information without a court order," Isberto said. “We have the details, the time, the dates. We can trace it in our system," said lawyer Eric Español, head of Smart's legal and regulatory department. He was responding to Enrile’s inquiry on the possibility of detecting the precise time and duration of a call. Enrile noted that the improvised explosive device used in the recent bombing in Cotabato City where six people were killed was detonated through a call from a cell phone. “That Cotabato incident is a very telling signal to us. The bomb was detonated by a cell phone. I'm sure that bomb must have been embedded in a cell phone so that it could be detonated, and the one who detonated it must have used the wires of one of the service providers to make the call," he said. In an interview after the hearing, Isberto said telecommunication companies have to be provided with specific information such as time and location of the incident so that they could trace the calls made to the cell phone. He said that although the content of the call could not be viewed, “what we could probably provide is a list of calls that could possibly been involved in the incident." He however clarified that only received or billed calls could be recorded. Missed calls or calls that were not answered do not go through their system. - GMANews.TV