Fear of being branded traitors keeping Cayetano allies from crossing over

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

June 15, 2026 | 11:05am

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate majority led by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian could grow to as many as 15 members, but senators being asked to defect are hesitating due to fears of being criticized and mobbed online.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo shared in a DZRH interview Monday, June 15, that it is "possible" for the Gatchalian-led group, which currently has 12 members, to reach up to 15 amid their attempts to woo members of the bloc under Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

"There are two more, one male, one female, if we can convince them," Tulfo said in mixed English and Filipino, without revealing the identities of the senators. "The talks we have as friends are ongoing — we've had dinner, we ate out to talk, or we visited each other's houses to talk, but there's yet to be a clear outcome to those conversations."

Tulfo said one of the senators being asked to join the majority wants to return to work, and that his own family has been urging him to attend sessions. 

What is holding him back, Tulfo said, is the criticism he and his relatives expect to face for siding with the Gatchalian group.

"May isa na ang gusto nila magtrabaho. Pero dahil nga itong grupo na ito, ang problema niya baka siya ay talagang mabubugbog ng mga basher ika nga na mga vlogger, mga troll, hindi niya alam," he said.

(There's someone who wants to get back to work. But with this group, his problem is that he might actually get beaten up by bashers, vloggers, trolls, he doesn't know.)

"That's what I hear from their friends who are our colleagues in the majority... Besides being called Judas, they will be called 'family of the devil' and all the other things that will come their way. So that's what they're thinking now: how can they avoid that?" Tulfo said.

The chamber is the most polarized it's been in years, and the numbers that the Gatchalian bloc has been trying to get are key to ending a leadership standoff that has stalled the Senate since mid-May. 

The majority currently holds 12 seats, which is enough for a quorum, but one short of the 13 needed to elect a Senate president. 

That slim gap is why the group has been able to install Gatchalian only as acting Senate president and president pro tempore, with the group leaning on the 1949 Supreme Court ruling in Avelino v. Cuenco and a 2008 precedent as a basis that 12 senators constitute a quorum.

Of the senators being wooed, only Sen. Joel Villanueva has said he will show up to the special session expected next month, and Tulfo said even that commitment is limited. 

Villanueva has agreed to attend the next session and help form a quorum, but "whether he will vote for a Senate president is not yet clear," Tulfo said.

Sen. Chiz Escudero, previously allied with the Cayetano bloc, made a surprise appearance at the June 3 plenary session that elected Gatchalian as Senate president pro tempore. 

The Palace has yet to announce a date for the special session.