For two consecutive days, June 1 and 2, 2026, the known “DDS senators” (referring to the Duterte-supporter-senators, as branded by netizens), composing the majority bloc in the Senate absented themselves from the said official work-days in the Senate Hall. Senate President (SP) Alan Peter Cayetano, senators Pia Cayetano, Mark Villar, Camille Aguilar Villar, Bong Go, Rodante Marcoleta, Robin Padilla, Loren Legarda, Francis Chiz Escudero, and Imee Marcos deliberately left the minority-bloc senators waiting for the opening of the plenary sessions on those days.
On June 2, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada surrendered himself to enforcement authorities by going to the Sandiganbayan to face charges of graft and plunder against him. As senators-in-session they were duty-bound to legislate, act on pending appointments/promotions of certain individuals, attend committee meetings, and especially to pursue their oath as senator-judges to formally begin as the impeachment court to try VP Sara Duterte for the charges against her, namely, betrayal of public trust, malversation of public funds, culpable violation of the Constitution and the Rule of Law, and other serious crimes against the people.
Supposedly to justify their move of boycotting their two sessions, SP Alan Peter Cayetano claimed that what they did was a “parliamentary tool” to ensure doing their job properly. The minority bloc, to counter the lame, if not an irresponsible and childish, excuse from the Senate Head, had to call no less than for his resignation as he could “no longer function” as the chamber’s leader.
Abandonment
They read a joint statement: “What happened today was a clear abandonment of responsibility, a dereliction of duty, and a blatant disregard of the rules that govern this institution, because the Senate cannot be made to stop working simply because its presiding officer refuses to lead.” (Inquirer)
The people can only shake their heads and could not help branding the absentee-senators as “shameless,” if not “traitors” for disrespecting the people’s expectation of these so-called “honorable” gentlemen to do their important constitutional job of legislation, among other functions.
At this time, in particular, where their counterparts in the lower house have overwhelmingly voted to impeach the long-non-performing, and shameless betrayer of the people’s trust, VP Sara Duterte, the Senate has been tasked to convene as an impeachment court, to try her on charges of her various crimes against the people.
Dereliction of Duty
For the people, what they expect is that any senator is bound by his/her oath to report for work and carry out his/her duties in the Senate chamber. Being absent on a work day, without any justifiable reason, basically is a dereliction of duty.
Besides, as a senator, he/she necessarily has to be discussing issues with other senators to come up with firm decisions expected to benefit the country as a whole.
That SP Alan Peter Cayetano and the rest of his fellow majority bloc colleagues did not report for two days wasted the people’s money. And as they know, and as the public are aware, the wastage incurred in a day’s absence of usual activity in the Senate Hall amount to more than P25 million – an amount that could have been utilized to benefit their poor constituents – the millions of poor and marginalized Filipinos!
The boycott of two-days by the majority bloc headed by SP Alan Peter Cayetano can only be considered as a betrayal of public trust, the irresponsible actions (in Pilipino, “malaking pam-babastos sa mga Pilipino!”) by government officials, that deserve only condemnation by the public. By their absence, “missing in action” in their workplace, they have shamelessly looked down on the lowly workers, and telling them, “Sorry, we are privileged mammals”!
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