Photo courtesy of Senator Win Gatchalian/Facebook.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said Thursday the Senate must move past weeks of political turmoil and return to legislative work.
Gatchalian said the chamber would focus in the coming weeks on priority measures under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council and preparations for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.
The pretrial conference for Duterte’s impeachment case started Thursday but was held behind closed doors.
The public trial is scheduled to begin on July 6.
Gatchalian said Senate committees could continue holding hearings during the session break to ensure that priority bills would move forward once regular sessions resume.
The Senate had been gripped by leadership tensions since May 11, when Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa appeared in plenary and helped install Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president, replacing Vicente Sotto.
Dela Rosa later went into hiding amid an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over his alleged role in the Duterte administration’s drug war when he was police chief. While he was under Senate protective custody, a gunfire incident broke out on May 13 between Senate security personnel and National Bureau of Investigation agents.
Dela Rosa left the Senate early on May 14, and Cayetano’s leadership later faced ouster moves that succeeded only on June 17 after Senators Chiz Escudero and Joel Villanueva joined Gatchalian’s bloc.