Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Asked the Senate to get to work on Wednesday, June 3. This was after Senators did not show up for two days stopping the Senate from doing its job. Congress will take a break on June 5. The President wants them to resume meetings.
The Senate has been paralyzed by a widening divide between the majority and minority blocs after the minority called on Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano to resign. Without a quorum — at least 13 senators physically present — the Senate could not conduct business, leaving several important measures unresolved.
“It’s a very, very sad situation to have to watch. The country needs assistance. People need assistance. How can we provide that assistance without the proper legislation to back it up?” Marcos told reporters. The president said the government was considering submitting a supplemental budget to address rising energy prices.
The gridlock has drawn alarm from business groups and political observers alike. The Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines said in a statement that programs stall, investments are delayed, communities remain underserved, and families face rising costs when legislation is blocked by what it described as “institutional paralysis.”
Political science professor Jean Encinas-Franco said the impasse “sends a negative signal to investors,” adding that the Senate “should be a stable political body, not a theatre or spectacle, because at the end of the day, it is the public that will suffer.”
The crisis traces back to May, when the majority engineered a leadership change that installed Cayetano as Senate president. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, reappeared after months out of public view to cast a decisive vote to install Cayetano as Senate president, at the same moment the chamber was set to receive an impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte. Dela Rosa then slipped away early on May 14, hours after chaos and gunfire erupted following an appeal for help, claiming his arrest was imminent.
The Senate majority holds a slim advantage of 13 senators against an 11-member minority, but that lead is increasingly under strain as two majority members are unable to participate in sessions because of legal troubles. Beyond Dela Rosa, Senators Chiz Escudero and Joel Villanueva face plunder allegations tied to a flood control corruption case, Senator Bong Go has been named an indirect co-perpetrator in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s ICC case, and Senator Rodante Marcoleta faces a plunder complaint over campaign donations.
The majority bloc has framed its absence as a principled stand. Cayetano announced via Facebook Live that he and his majority colleagues would not attend plenary sessions, with the majority releasing a statement saying their decision was intended to protect the integrity of ongoing Senate investigations amid recent developments.
The minority bloc rejected that justification without hesitation. Senator Panfilo Lacson wrote on X that the majority’s boycott sought to “hold legislation hostage” and constituted “plain and simple dereliction of duty,” adding that “standing up for the Senate’s independence does not place SP Cayetano and any senator above the law.”
Eleven senators belonging to the minority bloc — collectively calling themselves SB11, or Solid Bloc 11 — gathered at the Senate plenary hall on June 2 to deliver a joint statement demanding Cayetano’s resignation. Senator Raffy Tulfo challenged Cayetano directly, saying: “If you’re brave, show up tomorrow. Otherwise, you’re a coward.”
Cracks appeared within the majority’s ranks on June 3. Senator Chiz Escudero made a surprise appearance at the Senate plenary on Wednesday amid the continued absence of his fellow majority bloc senators, returning to the chamber following allegations linking him to a plunder case related to a flood control controversy. Senator Erwin Tulfo said Escudero did “not believe in what they are fighting for,” referring to the Senate majority bloc.
The standoff also carries constitutional weight. Constitutional lawyer Paolo Tamase told Rappler that Cayetano could be violating the 1987 Constitution, which bars either chamber from adjourning for more than three days while Congress is in session without the consent of the other chamber. A separate legal opinion cited by Rappler concluded that if the Senate still had not convened by June 3 without House consent, “we can say that the Senate has violated the Constitution because the three-day adjournment has already lapsed.”
Cayetano, responding via Facebook video, said the Senate had told the president’s office it was ready to take up priority bills but that the executive branch was not prepared. On calls for his resignation, he said the minority bloc could vote him out if it secured sufficient support.
The session ultimately concluded with Senator Sherwin Gatchalian declaring the sine die adjournment of the upper chamber. The legislative calendar sets June 5 as the sine die adjournment of Congress, with the next convening expected only after President Marcos delivers his penultimate State of the Nation Address on July 27.
Senator Kiko Pangilinan said the minority bloc would “exhaust all legal remedies to address this impasse.” The fate of the supplemental budget Marcos has flagged, along with pending legislation stalled during the deadlock, now rests on the congressional session that follows the July 27 address. Whether the majority and minority blocs can reach a functional arrangement before that date remains an open question that neither side has formally addressed.
