Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano has dropped his weeks-long insistence that he remains the rightful head of the upper chamber, conceding the Senate presidency in a social media message that traded the contested title for a play on its initials.
“I may leave the position of SP, but I am honored to still be your PS — your Public Servant,” he wrote in the post.
The statement marks a sharp reversal for a senator who, since early June, had publicly maintained that he was still the chamber’s “legitimate, legal, and moral” leader despite a reorganization that stripped him of the post. For most of the standoff, Cayetano had characterized the move against him as an illegal seizure of power and refused to recognize the new leadership lineup.
The leadership question turns on what happened on June 3, the Senate’s final session day before its sine die adjournment. With Cayetano and several allies boycotting plenary work, 12 senators assembled a quorum after Sen. Francis Escudero — previously aligned with the Cayetano camp — appeared on the floor and supplied the numbers needed to proceed. The chamber then voted to declare all leadership posts vacant and installed Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore and acting Senate President.
Cayetano had spent the intervening weeks contesting that outcome rather than accepting it. He floated a power-sharing arrangement under which authority over the chamber would be split, an idea Gatchalian publicly rejected, telling dzRH that only one person had been elected on June 3 and that a dual-authority setup was therefore impossible. Cayetano also continued issuing directives under the banner of the “Office of the Senate President,” including a work-schedule advisory for Senate staff, even as Gatchalian was separately ordering remote-work arrangements for the same employees.
The dispute had bled into the institution’s own records. By June 8, the Senate website had been updated to reflect the June 3 changes, listing Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore and dropping Cayetano’s leadership designation so that he appeared simply as a senator. The positions of Senate President and minority leader remained formally vacant, since electing a full Senate President requires 13 votes.
Malacañang had thrown its weight behind the new lineup. Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro said the Palace recognized only the Gatchalian-led bloc, arguing that the country needed a genuine leader who would not cling to position or serve narrow allied interests.
Throughout the fight, Cayetano had alleged the reorganization was orchestrated, claiming several senators had been contacted and coordinated with the Palace ahead of the June 3 maneuver. He had also tied the timing to ongoing Senate inquiries, including a blue ribbon committee hearing on the flood control controversy, suggesting the leadership change was meant to disrupt those proceedings.
A petition asking the Supreme Court to affirm the legality of the June 3 session remains pending; the High Court has issued no ruling on the matter, contrary to a wave of false online claims that justices had restored Cayetano to the post.
Under the timetable adopted while Cayetano was still presiding, the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is scheduled to open on July 6 — a calendar the new majority has said it intends to keep.
