Senate chief Cayetano nixes resignation call: If you have 13, it’s yours

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday rejected the minority’s resignation call, saying it is automatic once the 13 votes needed to replace him are reached. 

“I’ll repeat this. If there are 13 votes, it automatically means I don’t need to resign. It’s yours,” Cayetano said in Filipino in a Facebook live.

With the support of 13 senators, Cayetano was installed to take the helm of the Senate on May 11, replacing Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto  III.

Among the 13 are Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who has been arrested and currently detained at a Quezon City jail over the flood control projects mess, and Sen. Ronald “Bato” Cayetano, who is wanted by the International Criminal  Court over his role in the previous administration’s war on drugs.

This leaves the Cayetano-led group with only 11 members, the same as the number of minority senators. 

Since Estrada’s arrest on Monday, the majority group has stopped attending Senate sessions, which prompted the minority group led by Sotto to call for his resignation.

READ: Senate minority bloc to Cayetano: Resign!

While rejecting the resignation call, Cayetano indicated his readiness to let go.

“In fact, I’m just looking at it day by day, week by week, that these hearings push through and get started. Maybe that’s all my job is,” he said in Filipino. “I would be more than content to leave the day that God uses people to tell me that we already have someone chosen to lead us.”

“I also told the twelve: ‘Make each one of us here a candidate. Who among you also wants to serve our country? But my mission right now is for the truth to come out,” he added. /mcm