Negros solon urges LGUs to declare Cayetano persona non grata

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — Negros Occidental 1st District Rep. Julio Ledesma IV is urging leaders of local government units, at least in his constituency, to declare Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano persona non grata in their localities.

This after Ledesma characterized Cayetano, who was ousted as Senate leader on Wednesday, as a “disgrace to the Senate.”

“This is what I ask of our district, and I will get this,” he said, adding that he would expect it to be acted on with dispatch.

READ: Senate majority hits Cayetano bloc hearing: Bogus, naked grab for power

He said Cayetano had trivialized his duty as a legislator twice, recalling that the senator, when he was speaker, also created unnecessary stir in the House.

“Enough is enough,” Ledesma said.

He told the Inquirer that Cayetano committed “acts inimical and deleterious to the common good.”

After the recent theatrics in the Senate pulled off by the Cayetano bloc, more people joined the signature campaign on the online platform change.org, calling on Cayetano to resign as Senate president.

The petition was started three weeks ago and has now garnered over 65,000 signatures. Close to 6,000 signatures were gathered on Thursday alone.

“At a moment of deep national uncertainty, the Senate must remain a credible institution capable of impartial judgment, constitutional courage, and moral leadership. It must never be perceived as a sanctuary for impunity, political self-preservation, or partisan obstruction,” read the petition, started by political scientist Cleve Arguelles of the group Team Pinas.

“This is not about political camps or personalities. It is about protecting public trust in the Senate itself. When trust in its leadership erodes, trust in the institution inevitably follows,” the petition added.

San Carlos City Mayor Renato Gustilo, reacting to the call of Ledesma to declare Cayetano persona non grata,  said: “We will support  Cong Jules if we have a basis to do it.”

Gustilo said senators should not hamper the holding of the Senate sessions “because they have a lot of work to do.”

READ: Alan Peter Cayetano ‘no longer SP’ – Senate majority

Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante, president of the Negros Association of Chief Executives, said they have yet to discuss what happened in the Senate, and the mayors’ positions will have to be taken on Ledesma’s call.

“But the Senate now is not the Senate that we have known when the senators were Miriam Defensor Santiago and Franklin Drilon, who tackled the welfare of the people,” Escalante said.

“It is the people who voted the current senators into office, so we deserve what we get,” he said.

“The people should not just vote for those who are popular and good talkers into office; their integrity should be the paramount consideration,” he added.

The Senate should be the last bastion of democracy, he further said.

Escalante and Gustilo are of the view that the current political wrangling in the upper chamber is related to the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte./coa /atm