Law deans, professors call for end to Senate gridlock

A group of law deans, professors, and political analysts has urged senators to move past the ongoing leadership dispute in the Senate and return to their legislative and constitutional duties, including the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

In a separate statement, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) affirmed that the Senate session on June 3, 2026, which saw the election of Senator Sherwin Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore, was "lawful and valid" based on the Avelino v. Cuenco jurisprudence "because a quorum of 12 senators was constituted."

"All acts, resolutions and decisions made by the Senate during its session of June 3, 2026 are presumed to be official acts of the Philippine Senate following the presumption of regularity in the discharge of official functions," said the IBP, the country's premier organization of lawyers, in a statement.

The Senate remains embroiled in a leadership gridlock between the faction of Gatchalian and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

The number was tied at 11-11, until it became 12-11 when Sen. Chiz Escudero on June 3 joined the then minority senators of the Gatchalian group, enabling them to hold a session and install new chairpersons of several key committees.

Cayetano, however, insisted he remains the Senate President unless the other faction gets 13 senators to elect a new Senate President.

Quorum question

On Thursday evening, a group of law deans and professors, which included a retired Supreme Court Justice, issued a statement "to lend whatever clarity we can to a muddled situation."

"Hardly has it ever happened that legislative business could not proceed because of the deliberate refusal of some members of the Senate to appear at the Session Hall for the conduct of legislative business. It was profoundly disturbing and confusing to us and to the entire nation," said the legal experts in their statement posted on the Facebook page of San Beda University Graduate School of Law dean Fr. Ranhilio Aquino.

They pointed out that while 24 senators were elected, Sen. Bato Dela Rosa has been in hiding due to a warrant from the International Criminal Court, and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is currently under detention.

"To insist that he (Dela Rosa) should be counted in determining a majority for purposes of quorum is to accord someone who is evading arrest and the processes of law, and deliberately putting himself beyond the reach of any legal coercion, the power to hold the entire legislature hostage. It is a choice between insistence on numbers over the functioning of the Legislative Branch of government," the law deans said.

"Certainly, it could not have been the intent of the framers of the Constitution to give any member either of the House of Representatives or the Senate the power to cause a deadlock that makes all legislative business impossible," they added.

Pointing to the Supreme Court ruling in Avelino v. Cuenco. G.R. 2821 (March 4, 1949), they said the election of Gatchalian and other committee chairperson on June 3 was valid.

"Even without addressing the question of the election of a Senate President, what this pronouncement of the Supreme Court calls attention to is its sensitivity to political realities – and the political reality is that 12 chose to appear to discharge their duties as senators, while 11 chose to stay away, shirking from their bounden duty," the statement said.

"When the Constitution requires a 'majority of each House' it contemplates a majority of the members actually deliberating and voting on measures," the statement added.

Nobody claims that 12 = 13

"The question has been asked: Since when has 12 become 13, and the plain answer is NEVER, but the premise is mistaken, because it assumes that 13 is the magic number for a quorum. That would be so were the membership of the Senate undisturbed," the legal experts said.

They stressed that Avelino v. Cuenco was decided under the aegis of the 1935 Constitution and in respect to the Senate, that Constitution provided that, "The Senate shall be composed of twenty-four Senators who shall be chosen at large by the qualified electors of the Philippines, as may be provided by law."

"Therefore, whatever rule was laid down in respect to quorum in the Avelino case continues to apply because the composition of the Senate has remained unchanged," they said.

Political decision

According to the law deans, there was no was Cayetano could continue to assert his leadership over the Senate since majority of its members, or 12 senators, supported Gatchalian.

"We call for our legislators to act as true statesmen and to return to the urgent business to which the Senate must attend, among the most important of which is the conduct of the impeachment trial of the Vice-President," they said.

The signatories to the statement are Aquino; retired Supreme Court Associate Justice and San Beda Graduate School of Law professor Adolfo Azcuna; former University of the Philippines College of Law dean Pacifico Agabin; University of Asia and the Pacific Law School dean Jemy Gatdula; San Beda Graduate School of Law professor Edmund Tayao; former Ateneo de Manila University School of Governance dean Antonio La Viña; Lyceum of the Philippines University College of Law professor Carlo Cruz; Adamson University College of Law dean Anna Maria Abad; Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law dean Ma. Soledad Deriquito-Mawis; San Beda Graduate School of Law professor Fr. Jaime Achacoso, JCD.

Holy Name University-Tagbilaran College of Law dean Marivic Trabajo-Daray; San Beda Graduate School of Law professor George Carmona; Misamis University College of Law dean Rabindranath Polito; UP College of Law and De La Salle University Tanada-Diokno School of Law senior lecturer Darwin Angeles; University of Sto. Tomas Faculty of Canon Law and San Beda Graduate School of Law professor Fr. Jerome Rosalinda, JCD; University of Sto. Tomas Faculty of Civil Law professor Benedict Kato; Adamson University College of Law and Far Eastern University Institute of Law professor Cyrus Sualog; UP College of Law and Lyceum College of Law professor Senen Agustin De Santos.

University of Asia and the Pacific Law School professor Rev. Roger Terence Camua; San Beda Graduate School of Law professor Juan Ruffo Chong; University of Sto. Tomas Graduate School of Law professor Melanie Pimentel; Pagadian Capitol Colleges College of Law professor Fr. Lhem Japos Naval, LLM; Diocese of Cubao Judicial Vicar Fr. Jun Arvie Bello, JCL; Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia Judicial Vicar Mons. Gary Formoso, JCD.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, DD, also signed the statement.—LDF, GMA News