MANILA, Philippines — Two former Senate presidents – Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. and Manuel Villar Jr. – sought Saturday to handcuff Malacañang from re-appointing its nominee once he or she has been by-passed twice by the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA).

The move is contained in Senate Bill 2605 filed by Villar in the current 15th Congress. It is a revival of a measure filed by Pimentel, also a former Senate Minority Leader, in the 14th Congress.

The past Arroyo administration had made re-appointments of presidential appointees although they had been by passed several times by the CA.

There were few presidential appointees by passed by the CA in the first regular session of the current 15th Congress but they have been re-appointed. The second regular session of the current Congress begins on July 25.

“Through this bill, the constitutional mandate of the CA to act as check on the presidential appointing power may be realized,’’ said Villar, now into the last half of a six-year tenure as a member of the Senate.

Pimentel, who graduated from the Senate last year, said that US Constitution requires only one by-pass by the Senate.

“It is more than enough signal to the people and the President that his nominee failed the scrutiny by the body mandated by the Constitution in terms of qualifications or fitness,’’ he said.

“Presidential nominees by-passed twice by the CA should be knocked out of contention for whatever posts they had been nominated to,’’ he added.