Senate President Vicente Sotto III has refuted rumors on social media that his leadership is in peril, saying that he continues to hold the trust of the majority in the chamber.

“Solid yun 15 namin,” Sotto told CoverStory on Sunday when asked about rumors circulating online that Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano is poised to replace him in Monday’s session.

“We usually talk, and we have a majority Viber group. All is well,” Sotto said of the majority bloc made up of 15 senators. Cayetano’s minority bloc consists of 9 members. With 24 senators, a vote of 13 is needed to claim the Senate presidency.

What has fueled the rumor of the change in leadership is Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s statement that he intends to quit the chairmanship of the blue ribbon committee on Monday. Lacson is on top of the inquiry into anomalous flood control and infrastructure projects, and his committee has produced witnesses—officials and contractors of the Department of Public Works and Highways—testifying that lawmakers, including three senators, had received multimillion-peso kickbacks from them.

According to Sotto, trolls on social media are behind the talk that a Senate leadership coup will take place on Monday. “We were laughing about it because we don’t have a session tomorrow,” he said.

Sotto said the Senate had earlier announced that it would not hold session for the entire week so that the senators could focus on hearings on the proposed 2026 national budget, which tend to be suspended because of the 3 p.m. session.

“We announced [the suspension of the session] last week. Shows you that socmed trolls don’t follow mainstream media reports,” the Senate president said.

On Lacson’s decision to quit the chairmanship of the Senate blue ribbon committee, Sotto said his colleague had become frustrated with a situation in which people complain or get angry whether or not he holds a hearing on anomalous flood control projects.

“Anyway, there are a lot of things [from the past hearings] that can be forwarded to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Independent Committee on Infrastructure (ICI), to aid them in performing their mandates,” Sotto said. 

Many of the witnesses called to testify by the blue ribbon committee, led by former public works undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, had turned over to the DOJ and the ICI their sworn statements linking lawmakers and other government officials to kickbacks from anomalous flood control projects amounting to billions of pesos. 

Asked who could replace Lacson as chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee if he goes ahead and quits, Sotto said the majority bloc would still talk about it.

“Ping’s choice will have an edge if indeed he resigns,” Sotto said.