The validity of the Senate’s leadership shake-up has drawn affirmation from across the country’s legal and political establishment, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said Friday, as he urged Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano to abandon his claim to authority over the chamber and the looming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
In a statement posted on his website, Lacson rattled off a roster of figures and institutions he said had independently endorsed the move carried out by 12 senators on June 3. Among them were the Executive Branch, the House of Representatives, retired Supreme Court Justice and 1987 Constitutional Commission delegate Adolf Azcuna, former Senate President Franklin Drilon, and other past leaders of the chamber. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines, law deans, and scholars in juridical science and political theory had reached the same conclusion, he added.
“He is pathetic. I do not know why he is acting weirdly lately. He is so detached from reality. For a change, he should listen to reason as expressed independently by the following who have validated the action taken by 12 of his colleagues last Wednesday,” Lacson said. He branded Cayetano a “disgraced ex-Senate President.”
Lacson’s remarks were a direct rebuke of Cayetano’s repeated insistence that he retains the post and the corresponding right to preside over Duterte’s trial. At a press conference Thursday, as reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Cayetano said the Constitution names the Senate President as the trial’s presiding officer and rejected the idea of yielding that role to Gatchalian. Asked whether he would permit Gatchalian to take the chair, he replied: “No and no.” He also noted, the Inquirer reported, that the chamber had amended its rules under Resolution No. 430.
The events Lacson defended unfolded when Sen. Francis Escudero joined the 11 members of the then-minority bloc during the June 3 session. Invoking the Supreme Court’s 1949 ruling in Avelino v. Cuenco, the reconstituted majority declared every leadership position vacant and installed Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore and acting Senate President. That same day, the Senate adopted Resolution 430, amending its impeachment rules to permit a senator chosen by majority vote to serve as the court’s presiding officer. Under the revised rule, the Senate President presides over the trial unless the chamber, by majority vote, elects another senator to that role.
Cayetano’s bloc has disputed the legitimacy of the takeover, arguing the quorum should have been reckoned against all 24 senators rather than 22, and that the maneuver breached Senate rules. The Inquirer reported that Gatchalian, for his part, has maintained he will preside as acting Senate President once the trial opens, tentatively set for July.
Whether Cayetano’s claim carries any practical weight may already be narrowing. Philstar reported that House lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said the chamber’s prosecution panel would honor only notices issued by Gatchalian’s office, citing the House’s earlier recognition of the new leadership when it approved the concurrent resolution to adjourn sine die.
