Senate presidency in limbo after 12-senator quorum move

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MANILA, Philippines — Senators offered conflicting interpretations of whether Alan Peter Cayetano remained Senate president after a 12-member quorum declared all chamber positions vacant.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo, spokesperson for the so-called new "majority" on Wednesday, June 3, initially said Cayetano remained Senate president because the 12 senators present did not have the 13 votes needed to install a new Senate chief.

"We cannot touch the Senate presidency because we don’t have 13. It is what the law says. You have to have 13. We don’t," Tulfo said at a press briefing after the session.

Sen. Ping Lacson, however, rejected the view that Cayetano remains in the top post. In a post on X, Lacson said Cayetano was "no longer SP" after a quorum was declared based on the 22 senators deemed available, excluding Sens. Bato dela Rosa and Jinggoy Estrada, who he said were outside the "coercive power" of the Senate.

"Hence, we voted to declare all positions vacant, although we could not yet elect a new SP because we lacked the 13 votes required under the Constitution," Lacson said.

The dispute followed a dramatic session in which Sen. Chiz Escudero, a member of the Cayetano-led majority, entered the plenary hall and joined minority senators who had already been waiting. A roll call was made, 12 senators were marked present and all chamber positions were declared vacant after two straight session days without convening.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian was then elected Senate president pro tempore and immediately became presiding officer. Tulfo said Gatchalian would preside as acting Senate president.

The bloc invoked a 1949 Supreme Court ruling Avelino v. Cuenco in declaring a quorum because they constituted a majority of the senators able to participate, with one senator detained and another in hiding.

Cayetano's refusal. Cayetano, in a video statement after the session, insisted that he remained the "legitimate, legal, moral Senate president of the Republic of the Philippines," calling the move an "illegal coup d'etat" and a disregard of the Constitution.

He argued that 13 senators were needed to conduct the business of electing or removing Senate officers, saying the majority of 24 senators is 13. Cayetano also disputed the use of the Avelino v. Cuenco precedent, arguing that it did not apply because, in his view, the Senate had adjourned its previous session and had to establish a fresh 13-member quorum.

"They did not remove me. They put in an acting [president]," Cayetano said in Filipino, adding that the Senate president pro tempore may serve as acting president only in cases of resignation, removal, death or absolute incapacity.

Cayetano said he had not resigned, had not been validly removed and was not incapacitated. "Buhay pa naman po siguro ako. Hindi po AI ito," he said. (I suppose I am still alive. This is not AI.)

Two days without session

The leadership dispute came after the Senate failed to convene on Monday and Tuesday when the Cayetano-led majority bloc and presiding officers did not appear for session.

The impasse began hours after Estrada surrendered to authorities on Monday over a non-bailable plunder case tied to alleged kickbacks from flood control projects. Dela Rosa, meanwhile, has not returned to the Senate since leaving its protective custody while facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.

Those absences thinned Cayetano’s majority and raised questions over whether he still had the numbers to control the floor. The previous session on May 26 had also ended in a minority walkout after Sen. Rodante Marcoleta pushed a proposed rules change that would allow senators not physically present to participate in plenary proceedings.

Wednesday’s session answered one question but opened another: the new majority had the numbers to declare chamber positions vacant, but not enough to elect a new Senate president outright. Whether that leaves Cayetano in office, or removes him without an immediate successor, is now the Senate’s next arena.