The new majority in the Senate solidified its grip on Wednesday after forming a 13-member bloc that elected Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate president.
The vote was unanimous for Gatchalian, who on June 3 was elected Senate president pro tempore by the then 12-member bloc. This time he was voted president of the chamber during the special session of Congress called by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
As he had earlier announced, Sen. Joel Villanueva of the bloc led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano showed up at the special session, making him the 13th senator present.
The minority bloc, now reduced to 11 members, did not attend the Senate’s morning session that started minutes after the House of Representatives convened. But minority Senators Loren Legarda, Rodante Marcoleta, Bong Go and Imee Marcos attended the meeting of the Commission on Appointments, which convened after the Senate session was suspended.
At the resumption of the session in the afternoon, minority Senators Pia Cayetano and Camille Villar appeared along with the four others. The ousted Senate president, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, was a no-show throughout the session, as was Sen. Robinhood Padilla.
Two other minority senators, Jinggoy Estrada and Ronald dela Rosa, were likewise not present. Estrada is in detention awaiting trial at the Sandiganbayan on graft and plunder charges, and Dela Rosa, wanted by the International Criminal Court as a suspected co-perpetrator of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” is in hiding.
Gatchalian is the fourth Senate president of the 20th Congress, after Senators Francis Escudero, Vicente Sotto III, and Cayetano. The term of Cayetano that began on May 11 was riddled with turbulence and controversy.
‘The leader the Senate needs’
Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri nominated Gatchalian for the Senate presidency, saying: “He is the leader that the Senate needs in this time of division and disarray, and he has done this before. I know he will be able to rise from the fray and lead us back to our principled function, which is to attend to the work of legislation.”
Thanking his colleagues, Gatchalian said he is accepting the Senate leadership bearing in mind the huge responsibilities that it carries. He said the Senate as an institution should serve every Filipino.
“We hear you about the rising prices of goods, assistance for victims of the Mindanao earthquake, the El Niño threat,” Gatchalian said, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.
He called on all the senators “to start facing together the challenges in the country.”
Sotto was elected Senate president pro tempore after being nominated by Sen. Panfilo Lacson. Gatchalian and Sotto took their respective oaths of office after their election. Zubiri was also sworn in as majority leader. He was not able to do so when he was elected on June 3, the last day of the first regular session of the 20th Congress.
Cayetano’s concession
An hour before the special session of Congress convened, Cayetano conceded the Senate presidency in a Facebook post, acknowledging that he had lost Villanueva to the Gatchalian-led majority bloc.
“This was never about the Senate presidency. From the very beginning, it was about the truth—the truth about the flood control funds…,” he said, adding that it is “a fight that we intend to continue, no title or position required.”
“I will not stand in the way of that vote,” he also said, and declared no ill feelings against the one who bolted his bloc.
“And to our brother who, in the end, felt he had no choice but to make peace with the new reality, I hold no bitterness toward you,” Cayetano said. “I have seen the pressures that were brought to bear, and I understand them. May the public’s judgment of you be a kind one. We are not enemies—only colleagues, brothers caught in a moment larger than all of us.”
Early in the week, Villanueva announced online his planned attendance at the special session called by Mr. Marcos on June 17 for legislative action on priority measures.
Villanueva is facing possible graft charges by the Office of the Ombudsman for his alleged involvement in the flood control corruption scandal.
Also earlier, Cayetano had said he was extending his congratulations to “whoever this chamber lawfully elects” as Senate president.
On Wednesday, Legarda also congratulated Gatchalian. She took to the floor to announce that Cayetano would serve as minority leader.
“Likewise, the minority members’ presence here is without prejudice to the final resolution of the case currently pending before the Supreme Court, and this manifestation is to ensure the orderly discharge of the functions of the whole Senate as an institution and the minority during the pendency of the said case,” Legarda said.
She was referring to the case filed by the minority bloc asking that the high court nullify the results of the June 3 shakeup that rendered all Senate positions vacant and installed Gatchalian as Senate president pro tempore.
Escudero as presiding officer
Also on Wednesday, it was announced that Escudero might serve as the presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court that would try Vice President Sara Duterte. The trial is to start on July 6.
Lacson told reporters that as of Wednesday, the consensus of the majority bloc was for Escudero to preside at the Vice President’s trial for alleged betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution. He said this was because Escudero is a lawyer by profession and a former senator-judge at the Senate impeachment court.
“But it can change,” Lacson said of the possibility.
Escudero is a former member of Cayetano’s bloc. He made the switch on June 3, making himself the 12th member of Gatchalian’s group, which allowed for Gatchalian’s election as Senate president pro tempore.
Ironically, one of the reasons for Escudero’s ouster as Senate president in September 2025 was the Senate’s delay in conducting the VP’s trial on her first impeachment.
The special session allowed the Commission on Appointments to convene and approve the nominations that were left hanging following Cayetano’s ascent to the Senate presidency in May.
The commission confirmed the appointments of five military officials—Lt. Gen. Edmundo Peralta, Vice Adm. Allan M. Javier, Maj. Gen. Isagani O. Criste, Brig. Gen. Niceforo M. Diaz Jr., and Brig. Gen. Rosemawatte A. Remo.
Also approved were the appointments of 86 foreign service officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The senators also passed pending bills and resolutions including: the ratification of the bicameral conference report amending the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (under which students from 4Ps families will benefit from education-related expenses); the passage on third and final reading of the bill designating the waling-waling (Vanda sanderiana) as the national orchid of the Philippines; and the approval on third reading of the measure granting Filipino citizenship to American basketball player Bennie Boatwright and wrestler Matthew James Ramos. CS
