Senate President Pro Tempore and Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian announced on Tuesday, June 9 a remote work set-up for the Upper Chamber’s employees from Wednesday to Friday this week to pave way for a security assessment within the Senate’s premises in light of a potential security threat.

This was after Gatchalian issued a memorandum for the Secretary of the Senate, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, and all Senate offices regarding the implementation of a heightened security measures and adoption of preventive safety protocols following receipt of a critical information from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

“In light of the security threat… and to allow the conduct of the necessary security assessments, inspections and other precautionary measures within the Senate premises all Senate secretariat and Senate proper employees are hereby authorized to work from home for the remainder of the week June 10-11, 2026,” Gatchalian said in his advisory.

“The safety insecurity of all Senate personnel remain a foremost priority as the concerned authorities undertake the appropriate security protocols within the Senate premises,” he said.

This was in contrast to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s prior announcement setting the Senate employees’ work schedule from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Thursday. Cayetano posted his advisory on his Facebook account.

While both senators have been posting their respective advisories, Malacañang and the House of Representatives said they will recognize announcements released by Gatchalian.

In the ongoing leadership struggle, Cayetano insists he remains the legitimate Senate president even after 12 senators moved to change the leadership set-up last June 3.

In a statement, Cayetano questioned the credibility of the alleged security threat, noting that it came from “a clearly partisan NBI.”

“And the timing demands honesty. This ‘threat’ surfaces precisely as the testimonies made in the latest Blue Ribbon Committee hearing begins to press for answers from the names it has raised. We are asked to accept that this is coincidence. The Filipino people are not so easily convinced,” he said.

“The surest test of whether a threat is genuine and not a pretext is simple—a real threat is used to protect the Senate’s work, never to suspend it. We will not permit the safety of this institution to become the instrument for silencing it,” Cayetano insisted.

In a related development, newly-installed Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Alfredo Corpuz said they will deploy additional officers in order “to make sure that our premises are really covered.”

“Unless the intel (intelligence) community says that there’s no real threat, we will treat it as it is. If there is a threat like that, then we will address it. We will do something about it,” Corpuz told reporters in an interview.