Lacson says Alan Cayetano not causing Senate crisis: 'He is the crisis'
By Dhel Nazario
For Senator Panfilo Lacson, the Senate crisis is not caused by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano; in fact, he is the crisis himself.
Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano. (Mark Balmores)
He said this on Tuesday, June 16, after the Cayetano bloc filed a petition before the Supreme Court to "restore themselves to power", so the high court would have enough time to study and rule on it.
He added that they should have filed this earlier.
Lacson said filing the petition on the eve of the special session called by President Marcos smacked of yet another desperate dirty trick by Cayetano to exercise "authority" as Senate President.
"Disgraced ex-SP Cayetano should have done that earlier to give the Court sufficient time to study and rule on the issue now being raised before the Court. Instead, he chose to file it at the last minute or a day before the special session called by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which intended to tackle pending priority measures and the CA to tackle the confirmation of AFP officers and DFA officials, including a formal election of Senate President Pro Tempore and Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian," he said.
"Is he trying to dig deeper in his bag of dirty tricks to create a scene tomorrow by invoking that pending action by the Supreme Court on his petition, he may still exercise his authority as Senate President?" he added.
Lacson earlier said the majority bloc led by Gatchalian is prepared for dirty tricks that Cayetano may play at the special session of the Senate on Wednesday.
He said the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms may have his hands full in case Cayetano creates more trouble on Wednesday.
"Acting SP Gatchalian and the majority bloc should not and will not allow that. The Senate Sergeant-at-Arms may have his arms and hands full tomorrow in case another of a series of crises is again created by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano," he said.
"That said, it is not accurate to say that Alan Peter Cayetano created this ongoing crisis. In actual fact, he is the crisis," he added.