Senator Alan Peter Cayetano maintained that he remains the legitimate Senate President and said the Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the alleged billion-peso flood control scam will push through on Thursday, June 4.
“Tomorrow, tuloy ang hearing ng Blue Ribbon Committee. I am still the legitimate, legal, moral Senate President of the Republic of the Philippines. There are still functioning committees,” Cayetano said in a Facebook livestream after 12 senators convened in session earlier in the day.
The session moved to declare all Senate positions vacant in an attempt to remove Cayetano from the Senate presidency.
Cayetano, a lawyer, insisted the move was illegal and contrary to Senate rules. He cited Rules 1 and 2, which state that the Senate President and Senate President Pro Tempore must be elected by a majority vote of all senators, or at least 13 of the chamber’s 24 members.
“Hindi po sila makaka-elect ng new Senate President dahil wala po silang 13 kanina,” Cayetano said. “’Pag may 13 po sila, ako pa mag-o-oath sa kanila.”
He also argued that the supposed new Senate President Pro Tempore could not serve as acting Senate President because Section 4 of the Senate rules requires the resignation, removal, death, or absolute incapacity of the sitting Senate President.
“Removal: hindi po nila ako naalis. Death: buhay pa naman po ako. Absolute incapacity: siguro naman po nakikita niyo, nakakapag-isip po ako, nakakapag-salita po ako. So wala pong ground para magkaroon ng acting president,” he said.
Cayetano claimed the leadership move was intended to control the Senate premises and stop the Blue Ribbon Committee from holding its scheduled hearing on the flood control controversy.
“Gusto nilang i-control ang premises ng Senado at gusto po nilang hindi mag-hearing ang Blue Ribbon Committee,” he said.
He questioned why the senators who claimed Senate work had been stalled focused first on changing committee leadership.
“Sabi nila, ginawa nila ito kasi naipit ang trabaho. Pero wala naman po silang ginawa ngayon kung hindi baguhin ang mga committee para walang Blue Ribbon Committee hearing bukas. Para hindi maimbitahan ang labing walong Marines. Pinalitan nila ang presiding officer,” Cayetano said.
He said the hearing would proceed under what he described as the legitimate committee leadership, stressing that the public deserves to hear testimony on the alleged misuse of billions of pesos in flood control funds.
“We have to hear the testimonies. We need to investigate the flood control scam in a very impartial way that will be satisfactory to all our people,” he said.
Cayetano said even those behind what he called an illegal coup d’état had been invited to the hearing.
“Invited po pati po yung mga gumawa ng ilegal coup d’état ngayon. You can try to stop us, but you will be stopping the Filipino people,” he said.