Some people up to no good have been impersonating high government officials using untraceable prepaid cell phone SIM cards. The latest victim is Secretary Ricky Carandang. Someone claiming to be Ricky called up Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon. Whoever that is must be either simply brazen or idiotic enough to think Ruffy will fall for it.
Actually even Ruffy was victimized. Ruffy tweeted that an “impostor pretended to be me and asked for money from Duty Free as donation supposedly for our team building.” I am sure many more such extortion attempts are going on all the time using telco facilities that telcos disclaim responsibility for.
I have always advocated the registration of all SIM cards, despite the reluctance of the phone companies to do so. There are also those who think such a registration impinges on their privacy. I believe that unless you have something to hide or have sinister motives, you should not be afraid to have your phone SIM card registered.
We are living in very dangerous times where terrorism is a daily threat. Cell phone technology can be used with deadly impunity as we have seen in such trouble spots as the Middle East. In our country, criminal elements from carnap to kidnap syndicates and law officers with extortion in mind use the anonymity of the pre-paid SIM card to advantage.
Then there are messages claiming you have won a raffle of the Bangko Sentral and if you are stupid enough to call the party who sent it, you will be asked to put up a sum of money so you can get the big money BSP is giving away. We know BSP doesn’t do that sort of thing but there are enough gullible fools out there. Those criminals hiding behind the anonymity of unregistered SIM cards should not be allowed to get away with it.
Other anonymous uses of the unregistered SIM card are more annoying than deadly. My big complaint with my Globe cell phone is that I get too much spam every day. Yet I don’t give my number to just anybody. It has become such that I no longer turn on my phone during my foreign travels because I end up paying for the cost of those unwanted text messages and roaming charges can be expensive.
Every time I complain to Globe officials about it, they tell me they are helpless… they don’t know who those people are because among others, they are using prepaid SIM cards with 24 hours unlimited text messaging privileges. I am also told that these spammers use equipment that allows them to send hundreds if not thousands of spam messages from a moving vehicle making it difficult to trace. I don’t believe Globe’s excuse. They just don’t want to do anything about the problem.
I am told that the phone companies are against registration because it would be difficult to implement and costly. I don’t think so. It would be costlier to society if one of these days a terrorist uses a cell phone with an unregistered SIM card to detonate a bomb that will cause extensive loss of lives and damage to property. Hindi na bale if that happens in the head offices of the telcos because they took the risk of inaction… but kawawa naman tayo who are just victims. Should we wait for such an event to happen before we take precautions?
The NTC must surely have the authority to mandate the registration of every buyer of a SIM card. They register us who are on postpaid basis anyway. Why can’t they do the same for prepaid? It will be difficult to enforce, they say, at the sari sari store level. But that is only an operational problem that must surely have a solution.
They can also do this in phases so that it will be painless. SIM cards already issued will just be given an expiry date. The replacement will be registered. There may be a delay in the activation pending telco registration of the SIM card but that is a small price to pay for the security of the general public.
We can put safeguards to privacy to address concerns of some people. Phone companies can only disclose registered owners upon request of the police in connection with an on-going criminal investigation or upon order of a court. Phone companies, however, can use registration information to deal with spammers. Of course there are those who want total anonymity because they are afraid of jealous wives hot on the trail of philandering husbands who may request phone companies for information.
We register cars because among others, cars should be traceable in case of its use in connection with a crime. A cell phone can be as lethal, if not more so, than a car in today’s age of terrorism. There is more reason to register mobile phones and the SIM cards that connect these to our telecom system.
If NTC is afraid they don’t have enough authority to order registration, Congress should quickly pass enabling legislation. Let’s not wait for something more serious to happen that leaves us helpless to stop or to bring terrorists and criminals to justice.
Naia and tourism
I received this e-mail from PhilStar reader G. Flores.
I fully agree with you on this. With regard to each and every one’s civic duty to sell Philippine tourism, please allow me to share with you my first hand experience.
I was dismayed when we arrived from a Hong Kong holiday last week. While going to the parking lot where we left our car, four beggars started following us asking for money. We told them we have no more money and to please go away. They did not leave. They were all the time behind us while we were putting our bags inside the car.
I thought that this must have been the experience of that foreigner who wrote about our airport a few weeks ago. I saw a policeman walking and I approached him and asked him why they are allowing these beggars inside the parking lot. I told him that this is a very bad image for a tourist to experience on his visit to our country.
The policeman got mad. He said they are not to be blamed because the parking lot is a public place and those beggars are just living in the vicinity. And besides the parking lot is not fenced so they can just enter.
I think the airport authority should brief these policemen on their shared responsibility to sell Philippine tourism especially since their assignment (international airport) is where tourists get their first impression of our country.
I hope too that the airport authority can add more lights in the parking lot. It’s dark and gives you the feeling that someone might suddenly mug you or what.
Labor problems
This one is from Antonio Sy.
The behavior of the dismissed PAL employees is the standard operating procedure of these militant unions. The company I used to run eventually had to close down because we lost a lot of market share in our business. Ingress and egress from the property and being allowed to do business is enshrined in the labor code. Picket lines should be moving and should not block the ingress and egress of company employees and property.
It is this propensity to coddle the so0-called labor leaders that causes our country to lose a lot of jobs to the Thailands and Vietnams of the world, despite our world class skills. In the end, people still don’t understand that the world has changed and there are no permanent jobs, only permanent interests. They can’t seem to separate the two.
I always read your columns as I learn a lot. As a knowledge management graduate, I am glad to say I am not a person who does not know that he doesn’t know!
Keep it up!
Signs of the times
This one is from Chubibo, the Abante column of my friend Dennis Garcia.
Narinig sa kapitbahay.
Apo: Lo, di ako maka-score sa syota ko kasi may nakamarka sa panty nya – NO TRESPASSING, PRIVATE PROPERTY.
LOLO: Naku, madali lang yan, apo. Markahan mo rin ang brief mo ng… DEMOLITION TEAM, DO NOT DELAY !!!
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com. He is also on Twitter @boochanco