Bill to regulate prepaid cell phones debated in Philippines

It was reported in the Manila Standard Today that the Philippine's Department of Justice endorsed a proposal put forth by a member of the South Asian country's congress to require prepaid cell phone buyers to register their phones with authorities as a crime prevention method.

Senate Bill 2644, authored by Philippine Senator Manuel Villar, would require prepaid phone purchasers to register the subscriber identification module (SIM) cards – cell phone portable memory chips – to help the Philippine's law enforcement community fight extortion and other crimes, according to The Manila Standard Today.

By registering SIM cards, authorities would be better able to track the otherwise anonymous users of prepaid cell phones who use the phones for criminal purposes, the news outlet said.

But XTPower.org, a Philippines-based advocacy for cell phone users and "netizens," posted a blog denouncing governmental efforts to force prepaid mobile phone users to register subscriber identity module (SIM) cards as a crime deterrent.

"In theory, SIM card registration is attractive and seems to be a good option," the TXTPower blog said. "But, upon closer study, it is not a smart thing to do. Criminals always want to be steps ahead and we predict they could easily go around the system through the use of lost, fake and stolen IDs to register SIM cards, like what they have done in many countries where authorities also gave their citizens false hopes."

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