The Manila Times

Pangilinan to Cayetano: Accept defeat

SEN. Francis Pangilinan on Monday urged Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies to accept their defeat and support the leadership of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian. The senator made the remark after Cayetano described the 12-member “new” majority bloc as the “Senate of Malacañang.” Pangilinan said the Palace, the House of Representatives, Integrated Bar of the Philippines, retired justices, legal experts, law deans recognized Gatchalian as the “acting” Senate president following the June 3 reorganization in the Senate. He said that even LandBank, the Senate’s depositary bank, has recognized Gatchalian as acting Senate chief, “under the legal doctrine of presumption of regularity of official acts.” “If this was a game of chess, it’s checkmate for them,” Pangilinan said. The new majority was formed after Sen. Chiz Escudero switched to the then 11-member minority bloc where Gatchalian belonged. Prior to Escudero’s transfer to Gatchalian’s side, the numbers game in the Senate was 11-11. Cayetano’s group was further reduced to 10 members with the arrest of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada for plunder. Pangilinan said Cayetano might end up experiencing again what transpired in 2020 when he was House speaker and refused to relinquish his post to then-representative Lord Allan Velasco despite the term sharing agreement brokered by then-president Rodrigo Duterte. “He will be forced to accept that he is no longer in position,” Pangilinan said. He expressed hope that Cayetano and his allies will accept defeat and eventually support Gatchalian’s leadership. “I know many of them have high respect for the ability of Senator Win [to lead the Senate]. The people will be very thankful if some of them will transfer to [the bloc of] Senator Win and support him as leader of the Senate so that we can all fully work,” Pangilinan said in Filipino. During the consultation and organizational meeting of the Blue Ribbon Committee under Gatchalian’s bloc, Pangilinan said the June 3 session convened by the 12 senators “was in compliance with the Constitution, the Rules of the Senate and jurisprudence.” “And 12 being a quorum, all acts pertaining to the official business of the Senate in plenary on June 3 are deemed lawful consistent with the Constitution, including with the motion to declare all elected positions vacant, which included the position of the Senate president,” he said. Pangilinan said the election of Gatchalian as Senate president pro tempore “to address the vacancy in the position of the Senate president is also lawful and consistent with the Constitution.”

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