Senator Christopher “Bong” Go told reporters he simply wanted to do his job, lamenting nearly a month of wasted time during the Senate’s June 17 special session — yet weeks earlier, he was among the senators who skipped three straight days of session, helping trigger the very paralysis he decried.
“Ako naman, gusto ko lang pong makapagtrabaho — halos isang buwan po ang nasayang,” Go said, saying he only wanted to work and that almost a month had been lost.
The deadlock he referred to began on June 1, when the majority bloc led by then-Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano failed to appear at the plenary session set to resume after the arrest of Senator Jinggoy Estrada on plunder charges tied to the flood control corruption scandal. Go was absent that day, and again on June 2 and June 3, as the Cayetano bloc stayed away from three consecutive sessions.
The minority bloc characterized the absences as a boycott rather than a stand for institutional independence. According to the Philippine News Agency, the 11-member minority said it was present and ready to vote on pending bills, but the majority “chose not to show up,” leaving measures such as the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers and the Anti-Hospital Detention Bill hanging. Senator Erwin Tulfo, as reported by OneNews.PH, drew a pointed comparison: an ordinary government employee who failed to report for work would face suspension or dismissal, while absent senators faced no penalty.
Cayetano, for his part, framed the absences as deliberate, urging colleagues in a Facebook statement to let the Senate “go quiet, together and by choice.” The impasse broke on June 3, when Senator Chiz Escudero switched sides, allowing a bloc backing Senator Win Gatchalian to declare Senate positions vacant. Go’s bloc later petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify that session, deriding it as an unconstitutional “rump session.”
The standoff ended on June 17. Hours before the special session called by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Cayetano conceded the presidency after Senator Joel Villanueva joined the rival faction, giving Gatchalian the 13 votes needed to take the post. Rappler reported that the Cayetano bloc, including Go, remained absent from the special session even after the leadership question was settled — present only for media interviews outside the hall.
Go, who topped the 2025 senatorial race with the most votes in Philippine history, has separately faced scrutiny over his name surfacing in International Criminal Court proceedings tied to the Duterte administration’s drug war — allegations he has denied.
