Honasan to file resolution to reverse Aquino’s veto of height requirement bill
Sen. Gregorio Honasan. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Senator Gringo Honasan said he would file a resolution when Congress resumes session in June to override President Benigno Aquino III’s veto of a bill that would repeal the height requirement for admission into the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
Honasan is the main author of the bill in the Senate and chairman of the Senate committee on public order that deliberated and approved the measure.
“When the session resumes, I will submit this for the better judgment of both chambers. I will talk to my counterpart in Congress,” he told reporters in phone patch interview on Tuesday.
“With the two-third votes from both chambers, we can override the veto of the President,” he said.
Honasan hopes that the 198 congressmen and 19 senators who signed the bill would not change their stand on the measure.
And when Congress gets the needed votes to override the veto, Honasan said the bill would no longer be sent back to the President for signature as it would automatically become a law.
The senator said the President might just have been fed with wrong information that was why he vetoed the bill.
But overwhelming votes from the Senate and the House of Representatives, he said, would show that the proposed measure was legitimate, not a “hao-siao” bill.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III also protested the President’s decision to veto the measure.
“I’m sure the President did not review the congressional debates on the matter. We discussed his concerns and it was well explained by the authors and sponsors,” Sotto said in a text message.
