Let us congratulate Alan Peter Cayetano for being the most hated person in the country. He has become so widely reviled that even those usually cast as villains have, by contrast, appeared almost heroic simply by distancing themselves from him.
Even Sen. Lito Lapid, long mocked, often unfairly, as chair of the Senate’s “silence committee,” found himself bathed in public goodwill. A man of few words, he took the Senate floor and spoke with clarity about the need to restore the Senate’s dignity, which Cayetano, in the span of barely three weeks, had destroyed.
But Cayetano is correct, in one sense. He is a unifier. He unified almost all sections of our society against him. If people could only call for his resignation from the human race and ouster from Earth, they certainly would.
Sen. Erwin Tulfo has the perfect description for Cayetano’s bottomless shamelessness. He said that Cayetano is so thick-faced that even if someone axes his face, the axe will simply bounce back. Well, in light of recent events this week, it’s not entirely implausible.
In a dramatic twist of events, the Senate impasse was broken on Wednesday when Sen. Chiz Escudero attended the last day of the session. As a result, quorum was achieved. Former Senate President Tito Sotto moved quickly to declare all positions vacant, including the post of Senate President. With zero objections, the Senate was reorganized and freed from Cayetano’s chaotic hold.
Major committees were stripped of the Cayetano gang’s control, including the Blue Ribbon committee. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian was elected Senate President Pro Tempore and designated acting Senate President, as the new majority bloc is still one vote shy of electing a new Senate head.
The proceedings were supported by the Avelino v. Cuenco Supreme Court ruling, which held that the Senate may conduct business with 12 senators present, rather than the usual 13, when the body’s effective membership is reduced. Since the wanted international fugitive, Sen. Bato dela Rosa, and the detained accused plunderer, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, are now outside the institution’s coercive jurisdiction, the Senate’s effective membership is down to 22, reducing the quorum to 12.
The executive branch and the House of Representatives quickly recognized the new Senate leadership. This was followed by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the official organization of all lawyers in the Philippines, as well as various law deans.
Former Senate presidents Sotto, Sen. Miguel Zubiri, Franklin Drilon and Koko Pimentel also issued a joint statement saying that the “highest duty of a Senate president is not to cling to power.” Ouch.
As expected, Cayetano, now mocked by the public as an “online seller” for spending more time on livestreams than in plenary sessions, slammed the proceedings. He claimed that he is still the “legitimate, legal and moral Senate president.” The optics were pathetic and depressing. The so-called Senate president was asserting his legitimacy not in the halls of the Senate, but on social media. It’s like voting online for Sen. Rodante Marcoleta’s hair as one of the best styles this year. He may gather a lot of likes from trolls, but we all know that it’s not true.
Cayetano then proceeded on Thursday with a fake Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the so-called 18 ex-soldiers’ “maleta” story. He said that he is being replaced because he is ferreting out the truth behind the issue.
Chaos once again visited the Senate with another stairwell chase and push-and-shoving incident that has now become the usual antics of Cayetano’s gang. And what did we get from it? Absolutely nothing. It was the same old maleta story, but this time with bigger, more fantastic tales. Sotto was accused of receiving maletas given to his staff who died long before. Fr. Flavie Villanueva, a 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, was accused of receiving bribes in a church that doesn’t exist. And a money exchange shop that amazingly exchanged P60 million into US dollars in just one day.
Notably, Sen. Loren Legarda and the Villar siblings, who were previously accused of receiving maletas when they were still part of the old Sotto-led majority, were spared.
Journalists were also attacked. Marcoleta called them “bayaran,” insisting that he was not being covered well enough. Well, congratulations, bigwig. You are now all over the news for all the wrong reasons.
At a press conference afterward, Cayetano once again insisted that he’s still Senate president, loathing his description as a “king without a kingdom.”
By all means, let’s put the king’s divine claim to rule to the test.
If Cayetano truly believes he is still Senate president, can he muster a quorum and convene a session? Can he direct the Senate’s committees? His so-called Blue Ribbon hearing, which drew no committee staff or government participation, is telling of its legitimacy. Which credible institutions or respected legal figures support his claim? And can Cayetano even attend a Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting chaired by the same executive branch that does not recognize him?
Knowing Alan, he will cling to power. His antics are obviously aimed at manufacturing a constitutional crisis as part of another destabilization attempt, backed by the base of senators accused of plunder. He would rather burn everything down than fail to get his way.
We must not permit this.
Let us defend the integrity of our institutions. In the end, leadership in the Senate is not established in Facebook livestreams or destabilization plots. It is exercised through institutional recognition and integrity, and public trust. Strip those away, and what remains is a pathetic performance of one.
Cayetano may insist on being king, but without a Senate that follows, a quorum that forms, institutions that recognize him and a supportive public, he is precisely what he is: a king of nothing.