SC junks challenge to June 3 Senate session

The Supreme Court en banc has dismissed a petition challenging the Senate’s 3 June session that led to the removal of Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano from the chamber’s leadership.

In a one-page notice, the Court said petitioners Valeriano Loon and Zigfred Diaz failed to sufficiently show that the Senate committed grave abuse of discretion in holding the session.

“The Court resolved to dismiss the petition for certiorari for failure to show sufficiently that the respondents committed grave abuse of discretion in holding a session on 3 June 2026, which, on the contrary, appear to be in accord with the facts and the applicable law and jurisprudence,” the notice read.

The dispute centered on whether the 12 senators present during the session constituted a valid working quorum.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero joined the bloc in the plenary hall, bringing the number of senators present to 12. The senators then declared leadership posts vacant and carried out a reorganization of the chamber. Contemporary reports said Sherwin Gatchalian was elected Senate president pro tempore and designated acting Senate president during the session.

Cayetano and his allies had argued that 13 senators were needed to constitute a quorum based on the full 24-member Senate.

The petitioners also questioned the Senate’s reliance on the Supreme Court’s 1949 ruling in Avelino v. Cuenco, which dealt with the computation of a working quorum when certain members could not participate.

By dismissing the petition for failure to establish grave abuse of discretion, the Court left the 3 June proceedings and the resulting Senate reorganization undisturbed.

The ruling is separate from an earlier petition filed by John Barry Tayam seeking a declaration that the presence of 12 senators constituted a valid quorum. The Supreme Court dismissed that case on 10 June for lack of legal standing without resolving the quorum issue on the merits.