Palace advises Gatchalian bloc: Don’t trust Cayetano

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has urged senators aligned with acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian to reject the “interim administrative arrangement” being proposed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who insists he remains the chamber’s president.

Palace press officer Claire Castro warned on Monday that Cayetano has a history of not honoring agreements, citing what happened when he was ousted as House Speaker back in 2020.

“This kind of arrangement will not bring any benefit at this point,” Castro said, stressing that the executive only recognizes the Senate leadership of Gatchalian.

“What might happen is a repeat of what occurred in the House of Representatives before, when there was a term-sharing agreement that was not immediately honored by then Speaker Alan Cayetano. We do not want that to happen again,” she added.

READ: Senate website drops Alan Cayetano’s prexy title

Then President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 1027, calling for a special session from Oct. 13 to Oct. 16, 2020, to resume deliberations on the proposed 2021 national budget following a leadership impasse at the House.

At that time, Speaker Cayetano refused to honor a term-sharing agreement with Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco.

READ: Alan Cayetano camp seeks interim admin setup with new Senate majority

During the special session, Cayetano was ousted and replaced by Velasco, who got the backing of the majority of lawmakers.

Amid the leadership dispute in the Senate, its official website now lists Gatchalian as the Senate President Pro Tempore and Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri as the Majority Leader.

At a press briefing on Monday, Cayetano said that he offered an “interim administrative arrangement” to Gatchalian. He confirmed directing Jose Luis Montales to request a meeting with Renato Bantug Jr. to propose the arrangement.

Montales and Bantug Jr. are both serving as Senate secretaries, the former under Cayetano and the latter under Gatchalian.

Cayetano’s proposal

“We don’t want the employees to be caught in between so I sent [Montales] a letter to talk with Atty. Bantug and offered that if [Gatchalian] agrees, both of us will sign documents even without designation,” Cayetano said.

One possible interim arrangement raised in the letter is a dual-signatory or joint-certification mechanism for vouchers, checks, disbursements, contracts, personnel actions and other documents necessary for the continued operations of the Senate and the impeachment court.

Under the proposal, documents requiring approval or certification may, if practicable, bear the signatures of officials presently exercising the relevant functions and those asserting authority to perform the same functions.

Stressing he is not giving up his signing authority, Cayetano said the proposed mechanism will be issued “solely as a practical and institutional measure” to ensure continuity of the Senate’s constitutional duty during an “extraordinary situation.” /cb