“Still thinking about it.”

So said Senator JV Ejercito on Sunday about reports that the majority bloc of Senate President Alan Cayetano had asked him to join them, amid speculations the latter could be unseated sooner than later over the Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa caper.

Ejercito told DAILY TRIBUNE he was still mulling whether to join Cayetano’s 13-member bloc from being an independent.

The proposal supposedly aims to ensure that Cayetano retains enough support to keep the Senate presidency amid a reported counter-coup allegedly being pushed by Senator Tito Sotto and allies.

If the coup succeeds, Cayetano would become the shortest-serving Senate president in history, having held the post for only a week.

Sotto was ousted last Monday, 11 May, in favor of Cayetano through a 13-9-2 vote. Dela Rosa’s surprise return to the Senate following a six-month absence gave Cayetano enough votes to wrest the presidency from Sotto.

Ejercito and Senator Migz Zubiri, who were part of the former majority under Sotto, abstained from voting and declared themselves independent.

Had Ejercito and Zubiri voted against Cayetano, Sotto would have gained 11 votes, still short of the numbers needed to retain the post.

Growing discontent

According to reports, Zubiri is being floated as a possible replacement for Cayetano should the planned coup prosper.

Zubiri previously held the Senate presidency during the 19th Congress but resigned following rumors of a coup in favor of Senator Chiz Escudero.

Escudero retained the post into the 20th Congress before he was ousted in September last year in favor of Sotto.

Rumors of a brewing coup against Cayetano allegedly stem from senators’ growing discontent over how he handled Dela Rosa’s case, which led to the 13 May shooting incident involving National Bureau of Investigation operatives inside the Senate premises and placed the institution in a bad light internationally.

Senator Erwin Tulfo, however, said he still has “no idea” about the supposed coup because no one had reached out to him or his brother, Senator Raffy Tulfo, as of Sunday.

Although offended by Cayetano’s statement accusing the minority of leaving the Senate before the shooting after allegedly receiving a tip, Tulfo said it was “unfair” to place all the blame on Cayetano pending the investigation.

Accountability

Nonetheless, Tulfo maintained that the Senate leadership under Cayetano must cooperate with the Ombudsman investigation to determine the truth and hold those responsible accountable.

“So we can determine if [the Senate] was indeed under attack, or if the NBI really stormed it or not. Because otherwise, and it was merely a so-called ‘staged shootout,’ then maybe the Senate president should step down,” Tulfo said partly in Filipino in a radio interview.

Critics alleged that the Senate shootout was “staged” to allow Dela Rosa to leave the Senate unnoticed and evade authorities attempting to serve an ICC warrant.