The Senate “majority” boycott is an illegitimate maneuver to cling to power now that they no longer have the numbers to impose their crooked will with one “majority” senator on the lam and another imprisoned for the non-bailable charge of plunder. The likelihood of a non-functional Senate until VP Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, which Senate President Cayetano insists and hopes to still be the presiding officer, looms. This situation in the Senate adds insult to injury for Filipinos who go to work everyday, enduring rising prices, low wages, poor public infrastructure, and inadequate social services with no excuses for their absence .
In the past two weeks, Duterte allies in the Senate have plotted the escape of a suspect charged with crimes against humanity, they attempted to revise rules on online voting to accommodate absentee Senators, and now they refuse to attend plenary sessions after their ally was arrested for plunder.
These actions further expose the sole function of these corrupt officials in entrenching impunity and undermining the clamor for truth, accountability, and justice.
Their unprincipled call for a “quiet” Senate and the false defense of an “independent” Senate will be loudly and strongly opposed by our people. We will not be silent as the Duterte bloc continues to desperately maneuver to turn the Senate into a sanctuary of notorious plunderers and human rights violators.
Bayan calls for public vigilance and sustained protest actions to condemn the actions of the Senate majority, and to call for the immediate arrest of Bato, the start of the impeachment trial of Sara Duterte, and to hold all corrupt officials accountable whatever their political alignments including no less than kickback scandal mastermind Ferdinand Marcos Jr