Sotto: Duterte to veto 'moot' bill on extension of voter registration period

President Rodrigo Duterte will veto the bill passed by Congress seeking to extend the voter registration until end of October 2021 because the matter has been rendered moot, Senate President Vicente Sotto III.

This developed after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decided to extend the voter registration period until October 30,2021.

Sotto indicated that Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea told him that the House of Representatives had transmitted the measure passed by both houses to Malacanang through the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office.

"The executive secretary... said that as long as he has not received it yet, we can do whatever we want, but it’s already with the PLLO. He said they will veto because it is moot and academic,” Sotto said.

“We will just let it go and allow the Executive Department to just veto it," he added.

Sotto said it was the recommendation of the Comelec.

"The resolution of the Comelec will be given to the president in the next day or so, I think by tomorrow, at the latest, Friday. So it’s already extended till October [30],” Sotto said.

Before this, the senators are arguing whether Congress should send the enrolled bill to the Palace for Duterte’s signature.

Sotto initially suggested to just inform the House of Representatives not to enroll the bill for Duterte’s signature.

However, Senate Minority Franklin Drilon argued that Congress will deprive the president the authority to sign it into law or outright veto the measure.

“There is a duty of the presiding officers [of Congress] to send the measure for his [president’s] approval. We cannot deprive the president to act on the bill by not sending it to him,” Drilon pointed out.

Drilon said he raised this concern for future debates.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III backed Drilon’s position, saying bills which have gone through the process of lawmaking should be presented to the president for his action.

Otherwise, Pimentel said there will be three people now who will have the veto power.

Last Monday, both the Senate and the House have approved on third reading the bill that seeks to extend the voter registration for Eleksyon 2022 to October 31, 2021.

The crafting of the bill was initiated by the Senate after Drilon suggested to cut the 2022 budget of Comelec to the “barest minimum” should they resist calls to extend the voter registration or just pass a bill that will mandate the extension.

To recall, the poll body had rejected the lawmakers' calls to move the September 30,2021 deadline for voter registration, citing lack of material time for other election-related preparations.

Last week, a Senate finance subcommittee deferred the deliberations of Comelec’s proposed budget for 2022 as senators wanted the poll officials to convene the en banc and reconsider its position on the extension of the voter registration period.

The en banc on Wednesday morning decided to extend the voter registration period until October 30, 2021.

As of September 11, Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas said there were 63,364,932 registered voters for Eleksyon 2022. -NB, GMA News