SC junks taxpayer suit over Senate row
The Supreme Court on Wednesday junked for “lack of legal standing” the petition of high school teacher Barry Tayam to validate the June 3 Senate session that led to a reshuffle in the chamber and the installation of acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian.
In a 20-page petition for certiorari, taxpayer and voter Tayam asked the high court on June 5 to intervene in the Senate leadership standoff by finding grave abuse of discretion in the acts of the bloc led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and affirming the leadership of Gatchalian.
But the high tribunal, in a statement, said that Tayam “failed to show that he suffered or was at risk of imminent suffering or direct injury” from the acts of Cayetano and Senators Pia Cayetano and Loren Legarda, the respondents in the case.
The Supreme Court has yet to release a full copy of its ruling.
The Cayetano siblings and Legarda were among the 10-member bloc that deliberately skipped sessions for three straight days from June 1 to June 3. They also refused to recognize the leadership of Gatchalian, who was elected by a quorum consisting of 12 senators on June 3.
Alan Peter Cayetano was elected Senate President on May 11 after Sen. Ronald dela Rosa emerged from hiding after more than six months to support the coup against then Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
Legarda was named Senate President Pro Tempore while Pia Cayetano was appointed the blue ribbon committee chair.
Independent filer
Tayam, who has been a constant petitioner in the high court over various issues, earlier denied being backed or sponsored by anybody in filing the case.
He cited in his petition the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in 1949 on Avelino v. Cuenco, the only case tackled by the high court involving the question of what constitutes a Senate quorum.
The Gatchalian-led bloc had cited the case and a 2015 Senate precedent to declare that the presence of 12 senators constituted a majority as there were only 22 senators over whom the Senate could obtain jurisdiction.
This was after Dela Rosa went back into hiding on May 14 after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest as a “coperpetrator” in the Duterte drug war. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, meanwhile, was arrested on June 1 on plunder and graft charges for allegedly receiving millions of pesos in kickbacks from flood control projects.
