Cayetano’s old playbook returns: No WiFi, no air-conditioning for Senate minority

Not only did Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s 11-person majority boycott the session on Monday, June 1, the 11-person minority were also forced to endure no air-conditioning and internet on the plenary floor.

But this isn’t the first time Cayetano’s rivals have found themselves on the receiving end of such unusual retaliation.

We go back to 2020, when Cayetano was speaker of the House.

It was the month of October, and his part of the term-sharing deal with Lord Allan Velasco of Marinduque already came to an end…except he did not want to step down. He even used the budget bill as his excuse at the time, saying his continued speakership would ensure its smooth passage.

Velasco did not back down, and even had the numbers to unseat Cayetano.

In a desperate attempt to stop the House from convening, the Cayetano-led House stripped away utilities needed for smooth operations on the plenary floor.

Rappler’s former House reporter Mara Cepeda wrote the inside story about the shenanigans in the House at the time.

“The initial plan [by the Velasco camp] was to have the breakfast meeting at the sports club as a show of force, and then travel as a group to the Batasang Pambansa nearby to stage their coup. But the plenary hall at the Batasan was padlocked, the electricity cut off, and the Wi-Fi connection made inaccessible for a livestream,” Rappler’s piece in October 2020 read.

“So Velasco and his allies switched to plan B: hold their own session at the sports club,” it added.

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Cayetano’s attempt to stop the coup failed — the makeshift session in Celebrity Sports Plaza resulted in the installment of Velasco as new House speaker.

Today, Cayetano is a lame duck Senate president who rose to power only weeks ago after his slim majority of 13 people ousted Tito Sotto.

But since then, he has lost two warm bodies — Bato dela Rosa, who has an active International Criminal Court warrant, escaped from Senate protective custody and is now in hiding, while Jinggoy Estrada has been taken into police custody after the Sandiganbayan issued an arrest warrant over his plunder case.

Cayetano remains Senate president, but one that cannot gather a simple majority vote or even build a quorum.

The 11-person minority is said to be courting some senators from the majority to jump ship, as public outcry against the Senate intensifies.

But Cayetano — a master at mental calisthenics to justify his actions — suggested that his bloc’s no-show at the Senate was in protest of the executive’s disregard for the Senate’s independence after authorities arrested Estrada within Senate premises.

“I am asking you to join one deliberate act — to let the Senate go quiet, together and by choice, so the country is made to ask why a co-equal branch would fall silent rather than be made to serve,” he asked of the Senate minority.
It’s crazy how history repeats itself five years — it’s about a congressional leader insecure with his numbers, relying on childlike acts of vengeance to keep himself in power. – Rappler.com