Senate PRIB photo release
MANILA — Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano sees the cancellation of a Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council meeting set for next week is a sign of an attempt to unseat him next Monday — a week since he was elected to lead the chamber in a surprise vote.
He said the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development, which functions as council secretariat, called him Tuesday to ask if he was willing to push through with the meeting.
He also said that other members of the majority bloc have been getting calls and "threats" about another leadership change at the upper house.
Cayetano insists Senate was 'under attack' on Wednesday
"'Yung iba'y tinatakot dahil kailangan daw magpalit ng Senate president sa Monday. Politika na po 'yun. Isantabi natin yun,” he said.
(The others were being threatened because they said there has to be a new Senate president on Monday. That is politics. We should set that aside.)
He did not say who made the threats and which senators were allegedly threatened.
Cayetano, who has served as House speaker and as foreign affairs secertary, added he may "leave anytime".
He added "they can remove me — I can even be gone as senator" without saying who he was referring to.
Cayetano has been saying since Wednesday that the Senate is being destabilized.
He also blasted claims that his ascent to the Senate leadership is meant to derail the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Cayetano says Senate minority trying to grow numbers
IMPEACHMENT COURT TO CONVENE MONDAY
He said the Senate will convene the impeachment court on Monday as scheduled and said talk, particularly in a letter signed by several law school deans and professors, that "the new majority is here to stop the impeachment" is just propaganda.
He said the Senate has received the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte and that these have been included on Monday's agenda.
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The Senate president assured the public that the impeachment would be a "fair and independent" process, with senators deciding based only on evidence.
Cayetano acknowledged the trial proper won't start immediately, which meant, he said, that his unnamed critics "should not rush" to replace him as Senate president by Monday.
He said many senators will likely want to speak on the gunfire incident last Wednesday, adding he is worried that might open the Senate to criticism of delaying impeachment proceedings.
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