Talent manager and entertainment columnist Ogie Diaz used a touch of humor to push back on a sharp remark from Sen. Pia Cayetano, arguing that journalists were within their rights to press her on where she stood after a change in Senate leadership.
Diaz framed his point around the value of getting answers directly from the people involved rather than relying on secondhand accounts. “Common sense, Sen. Pia Cayetano. Kaya tinatanong, dahil straight from the horse’s mouth ang gusto ng media, di ba?” he wrote on Facebook.
His comment followed an exchange in which Cayetano appeared irritated when reporters asked whether she would back the new majority. The senator pointed to the arithmetic of the chamber, saying the side holding enough votes prevails. “May thirteen, ‘di ba? Common sense, di ba? What’s in the rules? What’s in the Constitution? When you have 13, ‘yon lang,” she told reporters.
Even as he gently teased the senator, Diaz said he could understand the feelings behind her response, acknowledging what he read as her frustration and disappointment over how matters had unfolded in the Senate.
The remark came on Wednesday, June 17, the same day Sen. Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian was formally elected Senate President, ending a leadership dispute that had run for roughly two weeks. According to GMA News, all 13 senators present at the special session voted unanimously for Gatchalian, with Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri nominating him. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the decisive shift came when Sen. Joel Villanueva left the Cayetano-aligned bloc to supply the 13th vote required under the Constitution to elect a Senate President.
Cayetano, whose brother Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano held the post before the vote, signaled acceptance of the outcome once the threshold was met. The Inquirer reported that she and other minority members joined the afternoon plenary, with Sen. Loren Legarda telling reporters that the bloc recognized the legitimacy of the new leadership while stressing that their petition before the Supreme Court remained pending.
This is not the first time Diaz has trained his commentary on the Cayetano camp. Earlier in June, as Philstar’s Interaksyon reported, he joked on Instagram that the senators skipping plenary sessions were not, in fact, attending his long-running acting workshop — a running online gag that began after a series of absences left several measures, including the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, stalled in the chamber.
