The proper threshold for any shakeup in Senate leadership is 13 votes, and that mark was never reached, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano argued Monday, June 8, as he held to his claim that he still holds the chamber’s top post.
Speaking to reporters, Cayetano took aim at the removal and replacement of ranking Senate officials, calling the process defective for falling short of the votes the rules require. He singled out the ouster of Senate Secretary Jose Luis Montales, who was succeeded by Renato Bantug Jr., as one of several actions he considers void.
“Senate president pro tempore, Senate president, secretary of the Senate, OSAA (Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms), kailangan niyan 13 ang botong ilagay, 13 ang boto pag tinanggal. Hindi nila sinunod iyan,” he said.
He framed the question of the chamber’s chief clerk as a test of legitimacy, saying he had written to the official his camp still regards as the rightful one. “I sent a letter to our legitimate secretary of the Senate, legitimate because if you follow the rules, hindi siya pwedeng tanggalin kung walang 13 at hindi pwedeng palitan kung wala ring 13,” Cayetano said.
By his account, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has overstepped in taking on the duties of Senate president. Cayetano also maintained that the committee chairmanships held by his allies remain intact.
That position runs against how two other branches of government are now operating. Since Gatchalian’s election as Senate president pro tempore on June 3, both Malacañang and the House of Representatives have treated his bloc as the chamber’s leadership. The shift is visible even on the Senate’s own website, where Gatchalian carries the pro tempore title and Cayetano’s page no longer bears the designation of Senate president.
A concrete example surfaced the same day. House Secretary General Cheloy Garafil submitted the House prosecution panel’s manifestation in the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte to Bantug — the officer Cayetano dismisses as illegitimate. Bantug was likewise the one tapped for coordination on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address, sidelining Montales.
Cayetano said an earlier attempt at a workaround had collapsed. His group had floated an interim setup under which documents requiring approval would carry signatures from both camps, sparing Senate staff from clashing instructions. According to Cayetano, the Gatchalian side rejected the idea and signaled it had no appetite for any such accommodation. He insisted, though, that he is not surrendering his authority to sign, attributing the lapse instead to paperwork never reaching his desk: “No, I’m not giving it up. I’m just saying hindi dumating sa opisina ko yung pipirmahan.”
A sharply different reading of the numbers came from retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who told ANC’s “Headstart” that 12 senators are enough to act on leadership matters as things stand. His reasoning turns on the size of the chamber for purposes of counting a majority. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, detained and facing a plunder case, should be left out of the tally, Carpio said, putting the working figure at 23 rather than 24.
“A majority of 23 is 12,” he said.
Carpio anchored that conclusion on two legal pillars: a Supreme Court doctrine barring an official held in preventive detention over a court case from exercising public office, and the plunder statute’s suspension provision for officials charged before the courts. Stripping a suspended member of every official function, he noted, necessarily includes the power to cast a vote. “If you are suspended from office, that means you cannot exercise the functions and powers of that office, and one of those functions is to vote,” Carpio said.
