Specter of ouster baffles senators
Just as he “quite confidently” declared on Oct. 6, Senate President Vicente Sotto III concluded on Friday the smaller chamber’s business without having to deal with any leadership challenge before it went into a monthlong recess until Nov. 10.
In fact, it took all of 10 minutes after it convened at 10 a.m., for Sotto to read a letter to Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito and Sen. Robinhood Padilla from the House of Representatives.
The House’s letter said the bigger chamber could not adjourn its session for the traditional All Saints’ holiday break because it wanted to complete the second and third reading of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill.
The lower chamber is set to adjourn its session on Monday, Oct. 13. No discussions on a leadership change can be initiated when the chambers are in session.
Journalists curious about the origin and motives of supposed plans to oust Sotto came about after Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano made a bizarre call to have all elected officials in the country resign to give the country a “clean slate.”
But Cayetano promptly walked back his call after his critics suggested that he be the first to resign. Sotto himself did not believe that Cayetano was involved: “I have no beef with him and I asked him earlier and he said he had nothing [to] do with it.”
Cayetano said the speculation about a possible leadership change might have originated from supporters of both the majority and minority blocs.
“We in the minority are not talking about whether there’s already someone, or who it might be, or how and what would happen, because we believe they’re still happy in the majority. And I think we have a role to play in the minority. But usually, it doesn’t happen when it’s noisy, because everyone’s on guard,” Cayetano said.
“But you can’t take it away from the supporters of the majority who are vocal on social media about not wanting any changes, and you can’t take it away from our supporters across the country who want a change in leadership,” he added.
Cayetano categorically stated that no resolutions are being circulated among senators and that they are not expecting any leadership change before the Senate adjourns its session on Friday.
“There is no active courting,” Cayetano said, conceding that he does not even have the actual votes to make any such aspiration a reality.
Division of the house
Along with Cayetano, the minority has the committed nine votes of Senators Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Robinhood Padilla, Joel Villanueva, Ronald dela Rosa, Bong Go, Rodante Marcoleta and Imee Marcos, the sister of President Marcos.
The majority, on the other hand, has 15 votes led by Sotto and followed by Senators JV Ejercito, Win Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Loren Legarda, Raffy Tulfo, Mark Villar, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Bam Aquino, Pia Cayetano, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Kiko Pangilinan, Erwin Tulfo and Camille Villar.
But the Senate President can’t see the motivation: “You know here in the Senate, if a story comes from social media, well it would easily spread. But I don’t see it coming anywhere. In fact the other day, I talked with Sen. [Alan Peter] Cayetano and he told me that he is not talking with anyone and I believe him.”
But could the alleged coup be coming from outside forces? Sotto said it remains a possibility.
“Possible. Maybe someone is just instilling intrigue in the Senate because I talked with the minority leadership and we have not any misunderstandings,” he said in Filipino. He, however, refrained from answering which group he thinks could be behind the alleged attempt to unseat him.
“We should not allow these talks to hamper the work of the Senate and that’s the reason why last week, we’ve decided to suspend the session while the agenda or the pending bills are not yet here. You’ve seen that the pending treaties we’ve already passed and after that we suspended the sessions to allow the budget hearings to continue without stoppage,” he added.
