Sotto to call Medialdea for possible overturn of Sim Card Registration Act’s veto

CEBU CITY, Cebu — Senate President Vicente Sotto III will communicate with Malacañang officials to discuss the possible overturn of the veto on the Sim Card Registration Bill.

In an interview with reporters here Monday, Sotto suggested two ways to save the bill recently rejected by President Rodrigo Duterte.

He said the next set of congressmen and senators could refile it in the next Congress or the incumbent lawmakers of the 18th Congress could just override Duterte's veto.

"I was going to call Executive Secretary [Salvador] Medialdea. I will tell him, the way to go about this is that both houses of Congress overturn the veto of the President and then the provision that they dislike can be questioned in the [Supreme Court] and ask the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional," Sotto said.

"But then again, the prepaid SIM cards must be registered already because that is part of the law. It will become a law, minus the provision na ayaw ng Malacañang... And we can do it by May 23 if the President agrees with my decision and I am going to call him now to tell him my suggestion," he added.

Under the 1987 Constitution, if Congress decides to override the veto, the House and the Senate shall proceed separately to reconsider the bill or the vetoed items of the bill.

If the bill or its vetoed items is passed by a vote of two-thirds of the Members of each chamber, such bill or items shall become a law.

Last Friday, Malacañang announced that Duterte vetoed the bill as he believes that the measure needs further study.

Acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar said Duterte was constrained to disagree with the inclusion of social media in the measure without providing proper guidelines and definitions thereto.

Andanar said Duterte believes this may give rise to a situation of dangerous state intrusion and surveillance, threatening many constitutionally protected rights.

Sotto earlier expressed his disagreement with Duterte's rejection of the bill, saying bombings and other crimes will persist because of the non-enactment of the bill.

"Ayos! Tuloy ang mga bombings and blackmail and scams using prepaid sims [Bombings, blackmail, and scams will continue using prepaid SIMS]," Sotto tweeted in reaction to the news item on Duterte's veto. — RSJ, GMA News