Sotto offers solutions to save vetoed SIM card registration bill

(AFP)

CEBU CITY — One way to save the SIM card registration bill is to have Congress overturn President Rodrigo Duterte’s veto and to just question the unwanted social media provision before the Supreme Court, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Monday, saying he will relay this suggestion to the President.

“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 SC and ask the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional,” Sotto told reporters before he delivered his speech for the commemoration of the 145th birth anniversary of his grandfather, Don Vicente Sotto, here.

“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.

The proposed SIM card registration law is seen to curb fraud and other crimes aided by SIM cards.

It also includes a provision against online trolls by requiring social media account providers to mandate real names and phone numbers upon creating an account.

Duterte, however, vetoed the measure, noting that the “inclusion of social media providers in the registration requirement was not part of the original version of the bill and needs a more thorough study”, according to acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar.

Sotto said another way of addressing the vetoed bill is to refile it in the next Congress without the provision on social media registration.

“One way is refiling it in the 19th Congress. Yung wala yung provision na kinukwestyon ng Presidente. Although it’d be a different president already,” he said.

So far, at least one senator, who is up for reelection, vowed to refile the measure if elected.

Not a ‘last-minute insertion’

Sotto, meanwhile, refuted criticisms that the social media provision was a “last-minute insertion” to the bill.

The said provision was introduced by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on the floor during the period of amendments.

“Inaccurate ‘yun [That’s inaccurate]. It’s not a last-minute insertion. It was included in the period of amendments,” Sotto said when asked on the matter.

Deputy Speaker Wes Gatchalian, who has been pushing for the passage of a law mandating the registration of SIM cards, said he agrees with Duterte’s veto of the bill.

Gatchalian blamed what he called Drilon’s last-minute insertion, saying it is “totally not in line with the essence” of the measure.

“Hindi last-minute insertion ‘yun [It was not a last minute insertion],” Sotto told reporters.

“It was in the period of amendments in the Senate. Nung napunta sila sa bicam (bicameral conference committee) andun ‘yun. Eh ‘di sana tinanggal nila, ayaw pala nila,” he also pointed out.

(It was in the period of amendments in the Senate. When it reached the bicam, the provision is there. They should have removed it if they did not want it.)

During a bicam meeting, representatives from both houses of Congress come together to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of the same bills it separately passed.

Congress ratified the proposed SIM card registration law in February with the inclusion of the social media provision. It was transmitted to Malacañang for the President’s signature, but Duterte vetoed the proposed law last week.

READ: Duterte veto of SIM card registration bill jeered, cheered

Drilon, in a statement over the weekend, described Duterte’s veto of the bill as a “big win for troll farms.”

gsg/KGA