Cayetano, allies turn to SC amid leadership row

MANILA, Philippines — In an effort to retake control of the Senate leadership, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies asked the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday to invalidate the creation of the current majority bloc led by Senate President Pro Tempore Sherwin Gatchalian, who is the acting Senate president.

Not counting Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who is in hiding, two Cayetano bloc senators are missing from the list of petitioners: Joel Villanueva and Mark Villar.

According to information that reached reporters, Villar was not included in the petition because he was “abroad.” Meanwhile, Villanueva previously said he would attend today’s special session.

Cayetano and Senators Loren Legarda, his sister Pia Cayetano, detained Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Go, Rodante Marcoleta, Imee Marcos, Robinhood Padilla and Camille Villar, along with lawyer Jose Luis Montales, filed electronically their petition for certiorari and prohibition, which included a request for the issuance of a status quo ante order before the SC yesterday.

Named as respondents were Gatchalian and Senators Bam Aquino, JV Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Risa Hontiveros, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Francis Pangilinan, Vicente Sotto III, siblings Erwin and Raffy Tulfo and Juan Miguel Zubiri, as well as “alleged Senate Secretary” Renato Bantug and “alleged Senate Sergeant-at-Arms” retired Maj. Gen. Alfredo Corpus.

According to their 87-page petition, the Cayetano group urged the SC to “issue a status quo ante order” meant to prevent the Gatchalian bloc from carrying out its functions following the supposed reconstitution of the Senate last June 3, when Gatchalian was elected as Senate president pro tempore and designated as acting Senate president.

They also wanted the previous composition of the Senate before the June 3 plenary session restored, which included Cayetano as Senate president, Legarda as pro tempore, Pia as Blue Ribbon committee chairperson and Montales as Senate secretary.

They also asked that the current positions under the Gatchalian bloc be declared “null and void.”

The Cayetano group warned about citing the Avelino v. Cuenco ruling of the SC in 1949, which the Gatchalian bloc has been using to justify the quorum of 12 senators during the June 3 session.

“Avelino v. Cuenco is not an all-purpose magic spell that would miraculously allow the Senate to be able to declare a quorum and proceed to do business as long as 12 senators are present,” the petition read.

The decision and other jurisprudence should not also exclude Estrada, detained due to charges of plunder and graft in relation to the flood control scandal, from the composition of the 24-member Senate, the Cayetano group argued.
The Cayetano bloc called the Gatchalian faction’s June 3 session “mob rule,” saying “the rule of 12 people who thought they understood the ruling in a case and, with reckless abandon and disregard for the Rules of the Senate, imposed their will on the deliberative institution without contemplating the implications of their decision.”

In a statement on Facebook, Cayetano repeated his claims that he was stripped of his Senate presidency to stop the 18 bagmen from divulging further their alleged delivery of kickbacks to politicians.

“As the petition explains, this is not about a Senate leadership issue. Those who oppose it want to paint our motives in those simple terms – simple enough to twist, simple enough to confuse people about the real issues,” Cayetano said.

In a separate statement, Legarda welcomed their petition as a fight not over their leadership positions, but to assert their stance against the Gatchalian bloc’s takeover.

“This is exactly why we went to the Court. We are not asking the Court to settle politics. We are asking the Court to interpret the Constitution. Even if political events move forward, the question remains: were the provisions and rules followed or not? The issue is not about who sits in what office. It is about whether the Constitution still means what it says. If we leave this unresolved, the same problem can happen again, in another leadership dispute, another vote or another constitutional crisis,” she said.

At the same time, Lacson questioned the last-minute SC pleading, which he described as one of Cayetano’s “dirty tricks.”

“Disgraced ex-SP Cayetano should have done that earlier to give the Court sufficient time to study and rule on the issue now being raised before the Court. Instead, he chose to file it at the last minute or a day before the special session called by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which intended to tackle pending priority measures and the CA (Commission on Appointments) to tackle the confirmation of AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) officers and DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) officials, including a formal election of Senate President Pro Tempore and Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian,” Lacson said.

Blackmail?

To thwart the election of a new Senate president, Cayetano is allegedly prohibiting two senators from his bloc from attending today’s session, Blue Ribbon committee chair Erwin Tulfo said.

Tulfo told radio dzBB that there are at least two senators who communicated that they just want to work, but are being prohibited by Cayetano.

He claimed the two senators said they have been “threatened” with severe social media backlash, trolling and coordinated smear campaigns led by vloggers and online trolls against their families.

Tulfo said one of the senators hails from Mindanao. Within the Cayetano bloc, only Go and Dela Rosa are from the region.

Peaceful surrender?

After the voluntary turnover of 20 of his firearms to authorities, the Philippine National Police is still hopeful of Senator Dela Rosa’s peaceful surrender.

PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. viewed the surrender of the weapons as a positive step, but firmly clarified that it will not halt ongoing police operations to track down and arrest the senator.

“We acknowledge this initial compliance through your legal counsel, but we strongly urge you to fully surrender the remaining unaccounted firearms under your name and to formally face the legal processes ahead without further delay,” Nartatez said.

Security sweep

Meanwhile, the PNP also commenced a comprehensive security sweep of the Senate yesterday to address intelligence reports of an “evolving security concern,” which Gatchalian warned is possibly linked to a destabilization plot.

Gatchalian revealed that he, alongside Sotto III and Lacson, met with top officials from the PNP and the AFP on Monday to assess the credibility of an armed threat against the institution.

“Based on our communication with AFP and PNP, it’s possible that this is destabilization-related. But I won’t go into the details,” Gatchalian told reporters.

Lacson defended the heightened security measures against criticism that the Senate has been placed under martial law, saying all offices have been subjected to safety and security inspections to prevent a repeat of the “May 13 shooting incident and mayhem that transpired under the watch of disgraced ex-Senate president Alan Cayetano.” — Neil Jayson Servallos, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Rainier Allan Ronda