Prepaid SIM card registration debate returns

Following a July 26, 2013, bombing that killed eight people outside a bar in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, a move to register users of prepaid cell phones has been revived. The bombing was reportedly triggered by a cell phone. Philippine lawmakers suggest that registration of prepaid SIM cards that reside in mobile phones would deter terrorists from using prepaid phones to set off bombs.

In the wake of the terror attack, Philippine Sen. Paulo Benigno "Bam" Aquino said registration of prepaid SIM cards would not encroach on users' privacy, arguing that users of postpaid mobile phones already submit names and other information as part of the registration process.

Opponents counter that, if prepaid SIM card registration became law, criminals would simply use fake IDs to register SIM cards. Additionally, critics say that where SIM card registration is mandatory, as in African countries, identity theft has risen and criminals use stolen or lost IDs to circumvent SIM card registration laws.

"The paremeters [sic] of the current proposal to register prepaid SIM cards will have to be studied given that there may be implications on the constitutional right to privacy," said a spokeswoman for the office of Philippine President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III.

Prepaid SIM card registration was first floated in the Philippines after a February 2011 bus bombing in the Southeast Asian country killed five people. A cell phone was reportedly the bomb's triggering device.

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