Legislative

Sen. Erwin Tulfo opened a Senate Energy Committee inquiry into a two-decade-old power law, and Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian joined in criticizing the Energy Regulatory Commission for failing to audit a rate spike that has pushed Philippine electricity prices above Singapore's.

A priority bill to permanently fund the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program failed to be ratified before the special session adjourned, with Sen. Erwin Tulfo blaming House members' refusal to sign over a provision barring politicians from handing out DSWD aid — while a House committee chair said the holdup was about precise wording, not opposition to the anti-epal rule.

Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, sponsor of House Bill 8389, insisted the chamber's anti-political dynasty measure is a "positive development" that breaks a family's monopoly of power in a locality — but business and civil society groups counter that the bill lets relatives beyond the second degree hold office across every level of government simultaneously and permits unlimited succession and position-switching.

Sen. Joel Villanueva — long seen as the swing vote that could formally unseat Alan Peter Cayetano — said on June 14 he will attend any special session President Marcos calls, while Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the majority bloc has prepared undisclosed "contingencies" in case Cayetano "makes a scene." Villanueva's own father, televangelist Eddie Villanueva, publicly told him to follow his conscience "not your friends."

For the first time in Philippine history, the House of Representatives approved an anti-political dynasty measure on final reading, with 267 votes in favor on June 3 — but legal scholars and former co-authors of stronger versions say the bill's deliberately narrow prohibitions make it a constitutional fig leaf rather than genuine reform, raising the question of whether dynasties have legislated a dynasty bill safe enough for dynasties to pass.

Eleven minority senators walked out of the plenary on May 26, breaking quorum and forcing adjournment, after the majority moved to amend chamber rules to allow remote participation — a change critics said was timed to protect Senator Rodante Marcoleta and others facing imminent plunder charges from having to appear in person.

The Philippine Senate failed to convene on the evening of June 1 after the Cayetano majority bloc and the chamber's presiding officers did not appear for the scheduled 5 p.m. session — leaving the 11-member minority waiting two hours without a quorum and an agenda full of pending legislation unaddressed.

Twelve senators broke a two-day deadlock on June 3 by electing Sen. Win Gatchalian as acting Senate president after Cayetano's bloc lost its majority — but Cayetano refuses to cede the title, leaving the chamber with two rival leaders and the impeachment trial countdown ticking.

The House of Representatives on June 2 approved House Bill No. 9397 — the Freedom of Information Act — on final reading with 284 votes and no opposition, sending the measure to bicameral conference to reconcile differences with the Senate version amid a political context defined by one of the country's worst corruption scandals in recent memory.

The 11-member Senate minority bloc stormed out of the plenary hall on May 26 after Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano's majority attempted to push through a rule change allowing remote participation in sessions — a maneuver the minority decried as a procedural "railroading" with potential implications for the upcoming Sara Duterte impeachment trial. The walkout is the second in as many weeks and has prompted the minority to threaten a Supreme Court petition.