Two Senate service units deny deliberate internet, aircon cutoff
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Two separate units in the Senate denied that air conditioning and Internet were deliberately cut off inside the plenary hall while minority senators were waiting for Senate President Alan Cayetano and allies on Monday.
In a memorandum released on Tuesday, the Senate maintenance and physical facilities service (MPFS) attributed the interruption to a “tripped” circuit breaker at the GSIS at around 5:30 p.m.
The Senate only rents its building to GSIS, which houses the power supply of the air handling unit (AHU) electrical panel boards. They share one compound and are closely connected in terms of building maintenance.
A routine assessment followed complaints from minority senators who waited two hours, or until 7 p.m., after the scheduled start of the session on Monday before leaving the hall.
The 11-member minority bloc stayed in the hall despite no assurances from any members of the majority that they would show up, only to have the air conditioning and Internet cut off.
They were left sweltering in the hall after Cayetano and allies in the majority bloc boycotted the session in protest of the arrest of Senator Jinggoy Estrada inside the Senate premises on plunder charges tied to flood control.
The MPFS service chief said that upon inspection, “some other "AHUs on the ground floor and third floor experienced the same power issue,” and that the Senate's centralized air-conditioning was only restored around 6:30 p.m, or after an hour.
A separate memorandum from Senate management information systems (MIS) showed that there was “no disruption” of Internet services on the entire day, including 5 to 7 p.m., when the session hall was open for the scheduled session.
Instead, MIS Director III Mario Antonio Sulit said Internet connection “was actually at its peak during this period, with the wireless access point located at the session hall recording the highest level of activity.”
The memorandum also noted that the Senate’s cloud-based network monitoring system would have automatically generated alerts through text or email regarding the loss of internet connectivity.
“Attached are the wireless internet traffic charts and monitoring reports confirming that there was no service interruption on June 1, 2026,” the document read.
The incident came in the wake of a standoff between the majority and minority blocs over the leadership dispute.
Critics alleged that the event mimicked a similar episode in 2020, when Cayetano and his allies allegedly padlocked the House of Representatives session hall and hid the mace, on the verge of being ousted as speaker in favor of Lorn Allan Velasco.