“More than 90% of all mobile subscribers in the Philippines are prepaid users.”
This shared Quezon City Rep. Winnie Castelo, a known advocate of consumer rights, and principal author of House Bill 5109 or the Prepaid Load Protection Act.
“Unfortunately, this more than 90% is subjected to prepaid loads with expiry dates, and forfeiture of unused credits on such dates. This unduly deprives the subscribers of using the full value of the money that they paid,” lamented Castelo.
The government, through the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and its Memorandum Circular No. 03-07-2009, currently allows expiration periods. Prepaid loads of higher value are given longer validity periods.
“This is clearly and convincingly an anti-poor policy, where those who can afford less are prejudiced compared to those who can afford more,” complained Castelo.
This is clearly and convincingly an anti-poor policy, where those who can afford less are prejudiced compared to those who can afford more.
For several years, the Philippines has been invariably tagged as the “text capital of the world”, the “social media capital of the world”, and many other labels pertaining to the volume of use of mobile phones and the internet.
“When more than half of the population are subscribers of mobile services, when the penetration rate is 116%, it is absolute injustice for telecommunications companies earning billions to pick on the poor,” expressed Castelo.
It is absolute injustice for telecommunications companies earning billions to pick on the poor.
His House Bill 5109 or the Prepaid Load Protection Act seeks to: (1) prohibit the imposition of expiration periods on the validity of unused prepaid cell and text cards; (2) prohibit the forfeiture of load credits stored on an active prepaid phone account via prepaid call and text card; (3) prohibit the refusal to give a refund to any prepaid subscriber whose load credits were forfeited without any valid cause; and (4) impose penalties on violations.