Petitioners are asking the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction to prevent the government from implementing the law.
MANILA, Philippines – Days before the deadline for SIM card registration, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and other groups filed a petition before the Supreme Court , asking the High Court to declare the law requiring registration unconstitutional.
Aside from the government, some telecommunications companies were also named respondents. These include Globe Telecom, PLDT, Smart, Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc. , DITO, and Cherry Mobile., which requires Filipinos to register their SIM cards using any government-issued identification. This is supposedly intended to combat fraud, according to authorities.Many groups have been opposing the law over privacy concerns.
The petition raises violations of freedom of speech “and its cognate rights in a facial challenge that underscores regulatory overbreadth.”It concerns the nexus between freedom of speech and its cognate rights, and the right against unreasonable searches and seizures.There is an actual case or controversy because the supposed activation of SIM cards might “take away” the petitioners’ freedom of speech, expression, and its cognate rights.
The law should be found “constitutionally impermissible prior restraint” because it is against the constitutional standards and history that prevent laws like the Licensing of the Press Act of 1662. The centuries-old law from the West used to prohibit printing without prior registration. The petitioners explained that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their SIM cards, including their right to control who can keep or pass on the information they contain. However, the compelled disclosure by the law not backed by a warrant could be considered unreasonable search, according to the groups.
All unregistered Filipinos might lose their right to “‘engage in any of the common occupations of life [and] to acquire useful knowledge” because of the impending deactivation of their SIM cards.
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