“We lived another day.”
A visibly relieved Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said this to reporters after the plenary session on Monday, May 18. That day, there were reports of another coup exactly seven days after Cayetano was installed as Senate president, ousting Senator Tito Sotto.
Reporters were agitated that Monday morning. They roamed the halls of the Senate, rushing from one office to another, closely tracking senators’ movements and counting who was meeting whom.
That morning, Cayetano, a born-again Christian, was in what he called “an assembly of people who love God” — the Luzon Evangelical Leaders’ Fellowship for “prayer and Senate direction.” He shared to the group that he had an exchange of Bible verses with ally Senator Joel Villanueva, son of the founder of the Jesus Is Lord Church.
“For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you,” read Villanueva’s message to Cayetano, quoting 2 Chronicles 20:12.
