(UPDATE) SEN. JV Ejercito will hold an executive session with the members of the Ethics Committee, which he leads, next week to conduct “initial vetting” of the complaints filed against six of their colleagues. In a text message on Thursday, Ejercito said the committee is expected to adopt the rules governing the conduct of the inquiry. “And we will proceed to initial vetting of cases,” he said. Senators Francis Escudero, Risa Hontiveros, Ronald Dela Rosa and Ejercito himself face ethics complaints on various grounds. Ejercito declined to reveal the two other senators facing complaints before the panel. “Sorry, I can’t disclose. [It would be] unfair for those frivolous cases,” he said in reply to The Manila Times’ query. “[I] Will only disclose those cases that have sufficient grounds,” the senator added. Ejercito said Senate President Vicente Sotto III has allowed the committee to use his conference room on March 4 at 10 a.m. “to expedite the meeting as soon as possible.” He earlier said the committee was unable to immediately hold the closed-door meeting as all committee rooms had been reserved for public hearings. The panel is composed of Sen. Francis Pangilinan (vice chairman) and members Senators Erwin Tulfo, Bong Go, Rodante Marcoleta, Imee Marcos and Hontiveros. A civil society group led by former Finance undersecretary Cielo Magno filed a complaint against Dela Rosa for his continued absence from official duties for more than three months. Dela Rosa has not been to the Senate since November 2025, when rumors began of his impending arrest for crimes against humanity for his role in former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war. Ejercito faces an ethics complaint for his alleged failure to act immediately on the case filed against Escudero, who accepted campaign fund from a contractor. Hontiveros has been accused of “witness tampering” in relation to her investigation on the alleged sexual and labor abuses of some members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ by its founder Apollo Quiboloy. Sotto is lukewarm to suggestions to suspend the operation of Dela Rosa’s office since it has many personnel. He said Dela Rosa’s office continues to function. “They submit [Dela Rosa’s proposed] bills and comment on other bills. It could be coming from Senator Bato [Dela Rosa] or [his] advisers or legal people,” he added. On being named in the complaint, Ejercito earlier said that “everyone is entitled to their own opinion and has the right to raise concerns or seek appropriate remedies under the law.” “That is how democracy works. But I would also like to stress that we are a government of laws, and we will proceed in accordance with Senate rules and due process,” he added.