Barely a week after a major reshuffle in the Senate composition, an online report claiming that another leadership change was underway in the chamber made the rounds on Facebook over the weekend. This is false. Several senators have debunked this claim.
Published on Sept. 13, the alleged “breaking news” bore a caption that read:
“BREAKING: Another Regodon (sic) in the Senate? Senate Minority Leader Allan (sic) Peter Cayetano secures numbers for Senate presidency — a reliable source tells OneTV Philippines.”
In a Sept. 14 post on X (formerly Twitter), Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson dismissed the post as “fake,” saying it was “intended to deceive and confuse.”
In a separate blog post on Sept. 14, he further noted that the “proper and professional way” for a leadership overhaul is “to call or approach the Senate president, inform and show him the resolution signed by at least 13 senators.”
“Then the sitting Senate president resigns at the opening of the session, not through a media outlet, whether nationally recognized or obscure,” Lacson continued.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who belongs to the majority bloc with Lacson, said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview that there is no change in the Senate leadership, also describing the circulating online report as “fake news.”
In another interview on DZMM Teleradyo, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III described the rumors of a possible coup in the Senate leadership as mere “psywar.”
“Tingin po namin d’yan ay psywar, psy-ops. Kasi kagabi at kanina lang ‘yung grupo namin na 14 sa 15 ay kausap namin. Mayroon kaming Viber group, eh, lahat ay natatawa sa pinapakalat na balita. Hindi naman siguro totoo,” said Sotto.
(We think that’s psywar, psy-ops. Just last night and earlier today, our group of 14 out of 15 were talking. We have a Viber group, and everyone was just laughing at the news being spread. It’s probably not true.)
Even Sen. Imee Marcos, who is allied with the minority bloc, said there were no talks within the group about a supposed new change in the chamber’s leadership, adding that what they were discussing was about “staying alive.”
During the Sept. 11 Kapihan sa Senado, Lacson acknowledged that the narrow difference between the 15-member majority bloc and nine minority senators could be a threat to another ouster attempt in the Senate.
In a chance interview on Sept. 15, Cayetano said the minority bloc is “not actively” wooing senators amid a rumored coup against Sotto, but noted there is “always a possibility” for another leadership shakeup.
“Hindi pa namin napag-usapan sa minority na kung meron mang papalit, sino. Pumayag sila na ako ang minority leader. Wala pang nag-uusap as a group kung sino ang Senate president,” he said. The minority leader also stressed he did not approach any senator from the majority.
(We in the minority have not discussed who would replace [the Senate president], if ever. They have agreed that I would be the minority leader. But as a group, we haven’t talked about who the Senate president would be.)
The spurious talk emerged five days after then-Senate minority leader Sotto was elected as the chamber’s president, replacing Sen. Francis Escudero.
Posted by FB page OneTV Philippines, a “digital news network globally-based in Davao City and Pagadian City” (created on Sept. 9, 2014), the inaccurate post has garnered over 17,000 reactions, 4,300 comments and 1,900 shares as of writing.
