President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the SIM Card Registration Act (SCRA) as his first law, mandating the public to register their SIM with their telco companies to allegedly fight text scams. However, IT experts and progressives decry the impending privacy risks, logistical difficulties, and financial costs to marginalized groups.
Over the past five years, at least two people from rural communities have been killed weekly in the struggles against land grabs, based on estimates by the Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific (PANAP). More than eight are arrested and detained weekly, and more than two are harassed or assaulted.
In a resolution dated Oct. 14, Presiding Judge Radney Reginaldo Garcia said that the 42 accused are acquitted of simple disobedience under Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code for failure of the prosecution to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.