Sen. Erwin Tulfo alleged that Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is preventing two members of his own bloc from showing up at the Senate’s special session today, June 17, in a bid to block the election of a new Senate president.
Speaking on radio dzBB, Tulfo — who now chairs the Blue Ribbon committee under the reorganized majority — said the two had signaled they simply want to get back to work but were being held back by Cayetano. He said the pair reported being “threatened” with social media backlash, trolling and coordinated smear campaigns waged by vloggers and online trolls against their families.
One of the two, according to Tulfo, comes from Mindanao. Within Cayetano’s group, only Senators Bong Go and Ronald dela Rosa hail from that part of the country.
Even with the alleged no-shows, Tulfo said he is confident the chamber will muster enough members to meet the constitutional threshold and conduct business. Sen. Joel Villanueva confirmed his attendance on Sunday, June 14, bringing the majority to 12.
Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian shares that confidence, arguing the Senate can already proceed with 12 members present under the Avelino doctrine, a Supreme Court ruling that bases a working quorum on the chamber’s active and capable headcount rather than its complete membership.
Gatchalian told reporters the session opens at 9 a.m. and moves through priority measures until an 11 a.m. suspension, when the Commission on Appointments takes up the confirmation of presidential appointees. He said Speaker Faustino Dy III has committed the House votes needed for the CA to reach its required numbers. The panel will close after handling the promotions of military officers, and the chamber will reconvene by 3 or 4 p.m. for more business.
The reorganization follows a directive from Malacañang to end a month-long deadlock that has frozen the chamber’s work, stalled its legislative backlog, and left the promotions of five military colonels hanging. Those officers, awaiting elevation to general, are among the most urgent items on the day’s agenda.
Tulfo said in a separate dzBB interview Tuesday that the morning portion of the session would go toward naming committee chairpersons, with a roster of near-finished bills — among them a geriatric health measure, an expansion of the GASTPE voucher system to cover Grades 1 to 6, and two agriculture bills backed by Sen. Francis Pangilinan — lined up for action later in the day.
