Leyte Representative Richard Gomez on Tuesday warned the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in opposition to tasking native authorities models (LGUs) to steer info marketing campaign for the registration of SIM playing cards as it isn’t supplied within the regulation.
Gomez, a two-term mayor of Ormoc City in Leyte, mentioned Republic Act 11934 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act, designates the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) because the lead implementing company.
“It is the responsibility of the DICT and the telecommunication companies to implement the registration of SIM cards, including informing the public the whys and the dos. Why give the burden of letting the public know about the pros and cons of the measures, and the registration methods, to the LGUs when these already have so many tasks at hand?” he mentioned.
He added the telecommunication firms shouldn’t burden the LGUs for the reason that former are those which earn lots of of thousands and thousands of pesos a day from cell phone customers.
“They (telcos) are much richer than most LGUs. They should take care of their own business and their own problems because their profits are all theirs to keep and enjoy,” Gomez said.
DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos on Monday urged local officials to raise awareness and encourage their constituents to register their SIM cards starting December 27.
Gomez said LGUs already have a lot on their plates, given the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the natural calamities, and ensuring peace and order in their communities during the Christmas season when mobility is at its peak.
“Telecommunication firms can easily tap their distributors and thousands of retail stores to do the registration where they sell their SIM cards. LGUs are already doing so much more, primarily addressing the needs of their constituents. The SIM card registration po is a work for the DICT and the telcos,” he said.
“We should allow them to do their jobs,” Gomez added.
The SIM Card Registration regulation obliges each public telecommunications entity (PTE) or any direct vendor to require the top consumer of a SIM card to current a legitimate identification doc with picture to determine the latter’s id.
Likewise, the regulation supplies that PTE or any direct vendor would require the top consumer to perform and signal a control-numbered registration kind issued by the respective PTE of the SIM card bought.—Llanesca Panti/AOL, GMA Integrated News
