Gatchalian: No 'standard practice' of leaving Senate rooms bare

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman inspected the Senate office that detained Sen. Jinggoy Estrada stripped bare before handing it over to Sen. Tito Sotto, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian confirmed Saturday, October 10. 

Gatchalian said the anti-graft office wrote him asking permission to inspect the room, after which a representative of the Ombudsman went to the Senate to check the facilities on Thursday, October 8.

"Wala naman silang sinabi kung ano 'yung pakay, but obviously naman 'yun, Ombudsman eh," Gatchalian said in an interview with DZMM. (They did not say what they were after, but that's obvious. It's the Ombudsman.)

Videos that spread online on Monday, October 5, the turnover deadline, showed the sixth-floor room stripped of most of its floor tiles and wall panels. 

The room is reserved for the Senate president pro tempore, a post Estrada held from May 2024 to September 2025 under then-Senate President Chiz Escudero. Lacson and Sen. Loren Legarda, who later held the post, did not move in, and Estrada kept the room until he vacated it this month.

Images and clips also showed wires hanging from the walls and ceiling and electrical sockets pulled out, and what appears to be the removal of the toilet bowl, shower and pantry sink.  

Gatchalian said he ordered the Senate secretary to cooperate with the Ombudsman, as the chamber does the same with the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation. 

The Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms assisted the Ombudsman's representative, who looked over the facility and the office.

Gatchalian said the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), which owns the office as it is their building where the Senate is housed, also inspected the room a few days earlier after seeing photos of it. 

The GSIS had been "concerned with the structural integrity" of the facility, Gatchalian said. 

'Walang standard practice na ganoon'

Gatchalian rejected the claim of Estrada's camp that leaving a vacated office bare is standard practice in the Senate.

"Wala namang standard practice na ganoon. Ang standard practice ay pagbibigay-respeto sa isa't isa," he said. (There is no such standard practice. The standard practice is respect for one another.)

When Gatchalian moved offices in 2016, he said, then-Sen. Koko Pimentel asked whether he wanted the room as it was.

Sotto also asked whether he wanted the furniture when he vacated the Senate president's office on Friday, Gatchalian said. 

Sotto ended up leaving the office as it was, down to his own chair and desk, which Gatchalian had expected him to take.  

Gatchalian, whose term ends in 2028, said he would change only the work area for his staff to accommodate their larger number. 

Asked if he was disappointed by Estrada's actions, Gatchalian said he was. "Nakita n'yo naman 'yung picture, bare na bare," he said. (You saw the picture. It was completely bare.)

He said Sotto would need considerable time to renovate the office and that the Senate would help in doing so. 

"Sana nagkaroon ng magandang pag-uusap, sana nagkaroon ng magandang coordination para hindi made-delay 'yung paglipat ni Senator Sotto at hindi nagagastos ang gobyerno," Gatchalian said. (There should have been proper talks and coordination so Senator Sotto's move would not be delayed and the government would not have to spend money for this.)

In a statement Tuesday, Estrada's office said most of the removed items, including floor tiles, glass panels, lighting fixtures and cabinets, were bought with his personal funds because the Senate's budget for the office fell short. 

It said "not a single centavo" of public funds was wasted and that the resident Commission on Audit auditor had been informed.

The statement said Estrada's chief of staff, lawyer Racquel Mejia, told Sotto's camp before the deadline that the fixtures and furnishings would be moved to Estrada's new office. It also claimed the room was already bare when Estrada received it in 2022, and called the removal of fixtures a long-standing practice in the Senate.

Sen. Ping Lacson, who turned the room over to Estrada in 2022, disputed this with publicly released videos and photos. 

“I take exception to the statement pertaining to the state or condition of the same Pro Tempore office that I turned over to Sen. Estrada in 2022. Nothing was removed nor destroyed, precisely because government funds were used when I refurbished it when it was turned over to me,” Lacson said.