Telecom subscribers could keep their prepaid credits indefinitely under a measure now pending in the House of Representatives.
Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima lodged House Bill 9903 on Monday, a proposal built around removing the expiry dates that currently wipe out unused load.
The bill does not leave abandoned numbers untouched. De Lima built in a carve-out for accounts that sit idle for at least a year, describing it as “a narrowly tailored provision for dormant accounts, those inactive for a minimum period of” one year. Once an account crosses that threshold, carriers may draw down the balance at a rate of one peso for each day it stays unused, continuing until nothing remains.
That mechanism serves a second purpose. Emptying out long-abandoned credits frees telcos to recover and reissue the associated mobile numbers, all while the holdings of active users stay intact.
De Lima placed a guardrail on the deduction process, insisting subscribers be kept informed. “Subscribers must receive notification of these daily deductions,” she said.
In the explanatory note accompanying the filing, the lawmaker framed the measure as a matter of fairness in an era when phone credit underpins basic communication. “In the hopes of maintaining social justice, even every peso that avails us of the ability to communicate in this day and age must be safeguarded,” she said.
