If, for some reason, you haven’t registered your SIM card just yet, there’s some sort of a reprieve for you, as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has approved the 90-day deadline extension for it. The last day to register SIMs is now July 25, 2023, instead of April 26.

But there’s a caveat.

“Most of the services will be cut off with the telecommunications companies,” Department of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla had said following a sectoral meeting with the President in Malacañang. “So there will be a social media unavailability for those who do not register in the next 90 days.”

At a press conference the Department of Information and Communications Technology held just now, though, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy clarified that while cutting off access to Facebook or TikTok accounts is one such possibility, they’re still exploring options to incentivize the public to comply with the law.

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‘After maybe 30 or 60 days [during the 90-day extension period], we will start deactivating some services. Let’s say after 60 days, you will lose access to your Facebook or TikTok account, but you can still text. [The options] are still being [fleshed] out by the telcos to see which ones are easier to implement’

— DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy

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“During the 90-day period, we will observe the rate of registration. After maybe 30 or 60 days, we will start deactivating some services. Let’s say after 60 days, you will lose access to your Facebook or TikTok account, but you can still text. [The options] are still being [fleshed] out by the telcos to see which ones are easier to implement,” Uy said.

Globe, Smart Communications, and DITO Telecommunity Corp. have yet to issue their respective statements at the time of posting this article.

Uy revealed that there has been a surge of registration in the last two weeks. Whereas they only hit between 100,000 to 200,000 registrations a day since the SIM Card Registration Law took effect December 27, 2022, that number increased to 1 million a day in the past 14 days.

“The low turnout of people registering their SIM cards can’t then be attributed to a lack of valid ID, but to our bad habit of doing things [at the last minute],” Uy believed.

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‘We were just hitting 100,000 to 200,000 [registrations] per day. But the last two weeks, because we did not really decide on doing that extension, we were hitting 1 million registrants per day. Clearly, matitigas lang talaga ang ulo ng ating mga kababayan. They always just want [to do things at] the last minute’

— DICT Secretary Uy to ABS-CBN anchor Pia Gutierrez

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The SIM Card Registration Act was signed into law on October 10, 2022, in an effort to curb cybercriminal activities. Under the measure, everyone is mandated to register his or her SIM with Globe, Smart, and DITO. Failure to do so will result in the permanent deactivation of the SIM card.

The latest data show that more than 82 million SIM cards have already been enrolled in the system.

“We anticipate that there will be 15 to 18 or 20 million active SIM cards that still need to be registered,” Uy said. “We’re anticipating that the total SIM card registration will be about 100 million. The remaining 50 million are the ones that are disposable, so to speak — the ones that are being used only once and for different purposes, either for telemarketing or scamming purposes.”

He added that 90 days should be enough time for the public to fulfill the requirements of the law.

You can watch the press briefing here

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