First of two parts
PARTISAN politics has reared its ugly head. It has plunged the Senate in turmoil, to the consternation of the public and to the prejudice of public welfare.
Following the unexpected change of Senate leadership three weeks ago, owing to the reappearance of Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa after six months of absence that triggered the unwanted chaos and panic inside the Senate building when gunfire erupted, another jolting Senate shake-up emerged that further vexed the citizenry over the confusion and chaos engulfing the Senate.
The controversial reorganization was an offshoot of the minority and majority senators clashing over a contentious issue of amending the rules of the Senate.
The rift precipitated a walkout of the minority senators and a retaliatory two-day boycott by the majority, both of which actions were childish, unparliamentary and a dereliction of duty, resulting in an impasse effectively halting legislative work.
Accusing the dominant group of deliberately stopping the operation of the legislative machinery and taking advantage of the departure of Senator Bato and the shift of loyalty of Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, the minority camp, invoking the Avelino v. Cuenco (GR L-2821) Supreme Court decision, claimed that its number of 12 senators constituted a quorum. They then proceeded to hold a session and voted to declare all positions vacant, electing Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as the new Senate president pro tempore and acting Senate president, together with the new secretary of the Senate and the sergeant-at-arms. In the process, they reorganized the composition of the various committees.
Thereafter, Senator Gatchalian, on the motion of one senator, adjourned the Senate session sine die. The claim that the group embarked on a change of leadership to continue with the operation of the legislative machinery appears to be a lie and a convenient excuse because by adjourning the Senate session sine die, debate and deliberations on pending bills necessarily stopped for nearly two months.
Subsequently, Senator Gatchalian issued a memorandum addressed to all Senate employees on a “work from home” policy, apparently to abort a scheduled hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee on the flood-control corruption scandal. The hearing called by committee chair Sen. Pia Cayetano went on as scheduled on June 4, the last Senate session day, with Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano declaring and claiming that the takeover by the Gatchalian group was illegal and in violation of the Constitution. He said the change of the Senate leadership was done without the constitutionally required quorum of 13 senators, as only 12 senators conducted the session and staged the leadership shift.
Despite the present legislative imbroglio, with some initial attendant commotion, the Blue Ribbon Committee, composed of six senators from the Cayetano bloc, proceeded to conduct the hearing with the 18 ex-Marines as resource persons. The ex-Marines were former bodyguards and drivers of resigned lawmaker Zaldy Co, who is accused of being one of the masterminds of the flood-control projects anomaly, and who is currently on the run.
The former Marines collectively and individually testified under oath that they delivered suitcases of money in staggering amounts and identified various members of the House of Representatives and the Senate as recipients.
Their testimonies seem to collaborate each other in the matter of the delivery of the suitcases of money, the manner of delivery, the vehicles used in the delivery, the addresses of the buildings and the residences where the said pieces of luggage were taken, the vehicles and their plate numbers used in the transfers, the identity of the recipients as well as for whom the deliveries were intended, and photographs of the suitcases, hundreds of bundles of money, including the buildings.
The testimonies of the former military men also appear to validate the confession of Co that he himself delivered luggage containing millions of pesos to the two highest officials of the land.
The sworn testimonies of the ex-Marines are undoubtedly credible and even overwhelming, as the facts and circumstances they testified to are sufficiently detailed and collaborating in material points that certainly make a case of plunder against those who unlawfully received taxpayers’ money amounting to billions of pesos.
No wonder the previous head of the Blue Ribbon Committee did not want to issue summons to the former Marines and subject them to an investigation, in addition to absolving the chief executive and former speaker of the House from liability on the biggest heist of the century, without calling them to appear before the committee.
With the Gatchalian group naming one of its own, who is notoriously known for advocating the bending or breaking of a law to get a desired result, as the new chairman of the BRC and who has pompously threatened to arrest senators who will attempt to convene a separate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, the country is now faced with a destructive and odious Senate gridlock.
To be concluded on June 15, 2026
