A week before Republic Act No. 11934 or the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act was signed into law, the national Social Weather Survey of September 29 – October 2, 2022, found that 45% of Filipino adults were already aware of the SIM Card Registration Bill. The other 55% learned about it only during the interview.
Among all respondents, the October 2022 survey found 60% approval of the bill, with 66% believing that SIM card registration would help fight crimes done through cell phones, and 48% agreeing that SIM card sellers could be trusted to protect the private information of the buyers.
45% had heard or read about the SIM Card Registration Bill before the survey
The interview started with the introduction: “Because of the increasing scams and other crimes done through cell phones, there is a proposed bill that aims to register the private information, such as name, birthday, and address, of anyone who buys a prepaid or postpaid SIM card of cell phones.” When asked whether they were aware of it, 45% of adult Filipinos said they had heard or read about it before. The remaining 55% learned about the bill only in the interview.
The percentage of those who had already heard or read about the bill was highest in Metro Manila at 56%, followed by Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila) at 49%, the Visayas at 44%, and Mindanao at 32%.
By education, awareness of the bill was highest among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies (69%), followed by those who either had some senior high school, finished senior high school, completed vocational school, or attended some college (57%), those who either finished junior high school or had some vocational schooling (49%), those who either finished elementary or had some high school education (35%), and those who either had no formal education or some elementary education (22%).
60% favored the SIM Card Registration Bill
To the question, “In general, do you approve or disapprove of the proposed bill that aims to register the private information of people buying SIM cards or the ‘SIM Card Registration Bill’?,” 60% approved it (consisting of 32% strongly approve and 29% somewhat approve, correctly rounded), 23% were undecided, and 17% disapproved it (consisting of 7% somewhat disapprove and 10% strongly disapprove).
This gave a net approval score of +44 (% approve minus % disapprove, correctly rounded), classified by SWS as good[1] (+30 to +49) [Chart 4].
Good net approval in all areas; Very good among college graduates, Good among non-elementary graduates through SHS graduates
Net approval of the SIM Card Registration Bill was good in all areas: highest in Balance Luzon (+47), followed by Mindanao (+45), Metro Manila (+43), and the Visayas (+34).
By education, the net approval score was a very good +52 among those who either graduated from college or took post-graduate studies, compared to the good net approval scores among those who either had some senior high school, finished senior high school, completed vocational school, or attended some college (+47), those who either finished junior high school or had some vocational schooling (+46), those who either finished elementary or had some high school education (+37), and those who either had no formal education or some elementary education (+42).
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.