DUMAGUETE CITY — The 12-vote bloc backing Senator Sherwin "Win" Gatchalian is not enough to install a new Senate President Pro Tempore or to unseat Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, because both the 1987 Constitution and the Senate's own rules require a "majority of all" the chamber's 24 members — that is, 13 votes — to elect its mandated officers, lawyer and former Dumaguete City mayor Felipe "Ipe" Remollo said.
An Ateneo Law graduate, Remollo weighed in on the Senate leadership standoff by framing it against the landmark 1949 case of Avelino v. Cuenco, the last time a fight over the Senate presidency reached the Supreme Court.
The 1949 parallel
Remollo recalled that the Avelino controversy unfolded under the 1935 Constitution, as amended in 1940, during the presidency of Elpidio Quirino, who had succeeded Manuel Roxas after Roxas died at Clark in 1948. The political parties at the time were already maneuvering ahead of the November 1949 national elections.
The 1935 charter, he noted, mandated only two elected chamber officers — the Senate President and the Speaker of the House — each to be chosen by "a majority of the members." Majority, he said, has always meant more than half, or at least 50 percent plus one, across American and Philippine jurisprudence alike.
"It was a clear case of getting the political advantage over one group because it was an election, a forthcoming election," Remollo said of the 1949 dispute — a dynamic he sees echoing in the present standoff.
What changed: 'all' and four mandated officers
Two things distinguish today's situation from 1949, according to Remollo.
First, the 1987 Constitution introduced the word "all." Where the 1935 charter spoke only of a "majority of the members," the present Constitution requires the Senate President to be elected by "a majority of all the members" of the Senate. "Malaki na ang diperensya — wala ang 'all' sa 1935, dito sa 1987 mayroon nang 'all,'" he said.
Second, Remollo said the modern Senate Rules — crafted precisely to avoid a repeat of 1949 — now name four mandated officers, not one: the Senate President, the Senate President Pro Tempore, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Sergeant-at-Arms. Reading the rules together, he said, all four must be elected by a majority of all the members.
"When you say majority of all the members, there is no more room for interpretation," Remollo said. With 24 senators, he stressed, that majority is 13.
Why 12 falls short
On that arithmetic, Remollo said the 12 votes Gatchalian secured fall short of the 13-vote threshold required to elect a Senate President Pro Tempore — meaning, in his view, the incumbent Pro Tempore remains in office and Cayetano is "unmistakably" still the Senate President.
He noted a key difference from the Avelino case: in 1949 the Senate presidency itself was vacated, prompting the chamber to install Cuenco as acting president. This time, he said, the chamber has not moved to replace Cayetano — likely on legal advice that the Senate President cannot be removed without a majority of all the members.
By the same logic, Remollo said, unseating any of the four mandated officers — the President, Pro Tempore, Secretary or Sergeant-at-Arms — would itself require 13 votes.
He also observed that the old arguments about absent members no longer hold, because teleconferencing and online sessions are now recognized as a valid, binding mode of attendance. A senator remains part of the base of 24 unless dead, resigned, perpetually disqualified or incapacitated, he said.
Impact on the Duterte impeachment
The leadership question, Remollo argued, will likely delay the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.
If he were her counsel, he said, he could ask the Supreme Court to first resolve the Senate leadership issue before submitting her to the chamber's jurisdiction — to avoid subjecting her to a body that may not be legally constituted. "Kung ma-acquit ako sa body na hindi legally constituted, sayang 'yung efforts ko. It will be an exercise in futility," he said.
The quorum question — and Malacañang
Remollo predicted that one faction, most likely Gatchalian's, will eventually muster a quorum, citing the "coercive powers enshrined in the Constitution" and the lesson of Avelino about the influence of Malacañang. A quorum, he said, requires all 24 to be counted as the base.
The harder question, he said, is whether that group can reach 13 votes to oust a sitting Senate President. "Patawag ka lang isa, dalawa, makakakuha ng quorum. Ang problema lang kung makakakuha ba sila ng 13 to oust a Senate President."
He urged the Supreme Court not to "shirk on its responsibility" by treating the matter as a political question, expressing hope it would exercise "judicial statesmanship" and rule decisively, ideally by a super majority.
A call to 'buckle down' and unite
Remollo closed with an appeal for unity amid converging crises — pointing to the fuel situation and the recent earthquake that devastated parts of the Sarangani–General Santos area.
"It's time to buckle down to work. Everybody's help is needed — from the executive, legislative, judiciary, and us, the Filipino people," he said. "Let's be statesmen. We need our politicians to be statesmen now more than ever."
The President, he added, "has a very important role to play to gather all these conflicting interests together and move on."