Sets of two people, cases and senators

When Matt Monro sang the poetic line “does a rose forget when it's spring" he, according to the internet, “expressed the comforting idea that (a noble) purpose will always re-emerge when the right conditions come”. This poetic line was a part of the lyrics of his love song entitled “Two People”.

Hereabouts, two people might have imbibed his frame of mind. They hoped for a noble purpose to emerge when the right time would come. These two people are Catalino Aldeo Generillo Jr., and John Barry Tayam. Atty. Generillo filed, on February 14, 2025, a mandamus petition before the Supreme Court seeking, inter alia, to compel the Senate to convene immediately as an impeachment court to try the charges against Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio. The court though dismissed Generillo’s case ruling that mandamus wasn’t the correct legal remedy to control the Senate's internal proceedings. No noble purpose intended by Generillo materialized.

Tayam, a high school teacher, on the other hand, also filed on June 5, 2026, a petition in the Supreme Court, to declare as “valid quorum” the presence of 12 senators during the Senate session on June 3. This petition was likewise dismissed by the Supreme Court, ruling that Tayam lacked legal personality in failing to show that he suffered, or was at imminent risk of suffering, any direct injury from the actions he challenged. His intended noble purpose didn’t also materialize.

I dare to surmise that there would have been a sensitive constitutional issue which could arise had the Supreme Court favorably ruled in favor of Generillo and Tayam. But, with extreme caution, I discern that our constitutional scholars, leading minds and astute leaders seem to be so wary to tackle this issue as to keep its imminence suppressed instead of discussed. Anyway, what issue is this? Because a ruling favorably granting Generillo would result in the convening of the impeachment court “forthwith”, it would arise from impeachment of the vice president but not on the articles constituting the alleged culpable acts. It would dwell on the composition of the impeachment court. An impeachment judge is a senator and a senator should be a natural-born Filipino citizen.

I came to know that two people formally filed cases before Comelec directly questioning the Philippine citizenship of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. They were former Pateros Mayor Jose Capco Jr. (March 8, 2007) and Leonides Buac Jr. (November 8, 2018). We must note, however, that the Comelec en banc declared with finality on May 8, 2007 that Cayetano is a natural-born Filipino. So, Capco and Buac’s noble objective failed to blossom.

I came to know that there were also two people, Berteni Cataluna Causing and retired military general Virgilio Garcia who challenged the natural-born Filipino citizenship of Senator Erwin Tulfo. Causing, on February 25, 2025, filed the case with the Comelec and on July 15, 2025, challenged Tulfo's citizenship eligibility with the Senate Electoral Tribunal. With the tribunal sitting on the case, Causing’s noble purpose has yet to flourish.

If the noble purpose of two people in questioning the natural born Filipino citizenship of Cayetano remains buried in a perceptively legal uncertainty, if the nobility of the objective of two people to challenge the natural-born Filipino citizenship of Senator Tulfo is still seemingly suppressed, perhaps the Office of the Solicitor General can reinvent and sharpen the two quo warranto petitions which former solgen Jose Calida used against two persons --Chief Justice Sereno and Senator Trillanes that the rose in Monro’s song may bloom in its spring truth.

I, indeed, shudder at the thought that the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio may eventually be heard by a Senate impeachment court where two senators could be non-natural born Filipino citizens and constitutionally unqualified to hold such office and therefore unqualified to be senator-judges. OMG!