BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The Supreme Court rejected Tuesday a request to pause the implementation of the SIM Registration Act and instead directed government agencies to respond to the petition questioning the constitutionality of the law.
Sitting in an en banc session in Baguio, the tribunal directed the following government agencies named as respondents in the petition to comment within 10 days from actual receipt of notice:
- National Telecommunications Commission
- National Privacy Commission
- Department of Information and Communications Technology
- Department of Trade and Industry
- Department of the Interior and Local Government
- Department of Education
The following private companies also named as respondents were also asked to comment:
- Globe Telecom Inc.
- Smart Communications, Inc.
- PLDT Inc.
- Dito Telecommunity Corporation
- Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc., doing business as Sun Cellular
- Cherry Mobile Communications Inc.
No reason was cited for the basis of the dismissal of the request to issue a temporary restraining order. The voting of the justices was also not disclosed.
The SC Public Information Office said it will upload on its website a copy of the resolution once they receive it.
Petitioners from different sectors, led by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, have asked the SC to strike down the Republic Act 11934 for infringing on four sections of the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution.
Specifically, they asserted that the mandatory SIM registration "restricts the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech and violates the right against unreasonable searches and seizures and the right to substantive due process," petitioners said in a separate press statement.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. approved earlier Tuesday the 90-day extension of the deadline for SIM registration.
"Failure to register within the given period of extension will result to limited SIM services from the telecommunication companies," Malacañang's broadcasting arm RTVM said in a Facebook post.
Malacañang's announcement came hours after Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said at the start of an inter-agency meeting on the Oriental Mindoro oil spill that the SIM registration deadline, supposedly set on April 26, was extended.
Remulla attended a Cabinet cluster meeting at Malacañang discussing the issue.
The extension came on the eve of the original April 26 deadline of SIM registration, when less than 50% of the country’s total active 168 million SIMs have been registered which prompted calls from some sectors to extend the deadline for registration, if not to completely scrap it. — Xave Gregorio reported from Manila