Former Senate President Chiz Escudero made a quiet attempt to align himself with the 11-senator minority group seeking to unseat Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano — but the overture was turned away almost instantly.
Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan disclosed on Monday that the approach came not from Escudero directly, but through go-betweens, and was rebuffed before it could gain any traction.
“There were discussions, intermediaries, but not Senator Chiz himself,” Pangilinan said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart. “Immediately, hindi na pinalaki pa dahil solid ‘yung 11. Hindi acceptable proposition na ‘yun.”
The group, which calls itself Solid Block 11, has thrown its weight behind Senator Sherwin Gatchalian as a replacement Senate president. Pangilinan credited former Senate President Tito Sotto III with putting Gatchalian’s name on the table as a unifying choice.
“In fairness to former Senate President Sotto, he was the one who suggested Win as a compromise candidate for us in the Senate to break the impasse,” Pangilinan said. “And that’s why it was very easy for all 11 to throw our support for Win.”
The bloc remains two votes short of the number needed to remove Cayetano. When asked whether the Villar siblings — Senators Mark and Camille — were being approached, Pangilinan acknowledged that quiet negotiations were ongoing without confirming specific names.
“There are several senators on our end who are doing back-channel talks,” he said.
The minority group is not banking solely on defections. Pangilinan said the 11 senators were prepared to hold their position regardless of whether anyone crosses over, framing their role as a check on the current leadership.
“We are also open to just staying where we are, solid 11,” Pangilinan said, “and work as a united solid group to provide a counterbalance to the disinformation, to the disregard for our rules.”
He pointed to rising public sentiment against Cayetano — including calls for his resignation from student councils at Ateneo Law School and Assumption Convent — as a force that could move sitting senators.
“I’ve never come across public outcry, outrage directed at a Senate president and calling for his resignation,” Pangilinan said. “Senators are sensitive to public opinion.”
Cayetano was elected Senate president on May 11, when 13 senators — most of them Duterte allies, Escudero among them — voted out then-Senate President Sotto. Escudero himself had previously served as Senate president from May 2024 until September 2025, when a Sotto-aligned majority removed him amid the fallout from the flood control scandal.
