Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday, April 18 sought to save the SIM Card Registration Bill vetoed last week by President Duterte.
Asked about the fate of the vetoed bill when interviewed in Cebu during the birth anniversary of his late grandfather, Vicente Sotto, the Senate Chief said: ‘’Well it's good you reminded me, I was about to call (Executive) Secretary Bingbong (Salvador) Medialdea because I am trying to find a way to save the bill.’’
Sotto, a vice presidential candidate, said one way of going about the veto is for a lawmaker to refile a similar bill in coming 19th Congress, minus the provision that the President did not like.
The other, according to Sotto, is for both Houses of Congress to overturn the veto of the President and then the provision that they dislike could be questioned before the Supreme Court (SC).
‘'And we can ask the Supreme Court to declare it unconstitutional. 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 (that Malacañang did not like),’’ he added. ‘’That's the second way of going about this and we can do it by May 23 (reopening of the Senate and the House of Representatives). If the President agrees with my suggestion and I am going to call him now to tell him my suggestion,’’ he said.
After the May 2022 elections, the Senate and the House of Representatives have only two weeks worth of plenary session before adjourning sine die on June 3, the end of the current 18th Congress.
Sotto said it is inaccurate to say that the President vetoed the measure because there was a ‘’last minute insertion (of a provision)’’ by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon (during a bicameral conference committee meeting).
‘’Nung napunta sila said bicam andun yun eh di sana tinangal nila ayaw pala nila (When they went to the bicameral meeting, the provision was already there. If there had been an attempt to insert that provision, they could have rejected it),’’ he said.
Sotto explained that the important thing about the bill is that prepaid SIM card registrations are very vital to national security, among others, such as by being able to stop the bombings, the blackmail and scams using prepaid SIM cards..
He said he thinks 90 percent of the bombings, not only in the Philippines but in the world, use cell phones as trigger mechanisms for the explosives.
‘’Ang ginagamit mga prepaid SIM cards (Prepaid SIM cards are being used) because it's untraceable. So we are one of the very few countries in the world that does not mandate the registration of prepaid SIM cards,’’ he explained.
Sotto said other countries mandate the showing of government-issued IDs or passports before one could secure a SIM card and have it registered.
‘’In other words, there should be a starting point ng paghahanap sa simcard kung ito ay nagamit in (in securing a SIM card if this will be used in something illegal such as scams, among others). So very vital yun (That is very vital),’’ he stressed.
‘’I think the veto of the President is the inclusion of a provision regarding the internet. Social media. I think it's a matter of how it was explained why it was included in the period of amendments eh. So now that, well it's water under the bridge dahil vineto ng Presidente (it was vetoed by the President),’’ he said.
Sotto said he already espoused the registration of SIM cards way back in 1998 when he was the chairman of the Senate public services committee.
As scams started to be noticed back then, Sotto said the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued a directive to the telecommunication companies (telcos) that prepaid SIM cards must be registered.
‘’They went to the Supreme Court. The history is that the Supreme Court issued a TRO on the NTC directive. So ang tagal niyan and the TRO (temporary restraining order) by the Supreme Court is indefinite so ang tagal niyan (it took so long). I was out of the Senate in 2004, noong 2010 panahon na ni President Noy Aquino that was the time na na-lift yung TRO (It was in 2010 during the administration of President Noynoy Aquino that the TRO was finally lifted), he added.
Sotto said it is in the current 18th Congress that he refiled the SIM Card Registration Bill.