Published June 1, 2026 8:26pm + Add GMA on Google Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google. The Senate held no session on Monday after members of the majority skipped the proceedings after Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was arrested in connection with the plunder case he is facing over alleged congressional insertions and kickbacks tied to anomalous flood control projects.Only members of the minority were at the session hall on Monday by 5 p.m., when the session was supposed to start according to the adjournment on May 26.Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano went to Camp Crame, where Estrada was taken to be processed after the police took him into custody.Estrada said he surrendered while Interior Secretary Juanito Victor "Jonvic" Remulla said the senator was arrested.As of late afternoon, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, a member of the minority, said he asked the Senate secretary and was told there was no notice from majority senators as regards their attendance.The minority senators waited until past 7 p.m.Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian raised the prospect of an ethics complaint after the minority also left."Well, 'yun ang pinag-uusapan namin ngayon, but definitely may violation. Hindi pwedeng basta-bastang kinacancel ang session nang walang abiso sa majority at minority," said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian when asked if they were planning to file a complaint. "Unang -una, violation of the rules ito dahil hindi naman pwedeng isuspindi at i-cancel ang session na walang consultation with the majority," he added. Zubiri said there were pending matters about the promotion to star rank of senior military officers, while Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan said there were also the bills on the Filipino citizenship of athletes being recruited to the national team.In a statement early Monday night, Cayetano asked the 11-member minority bloc to “uphold the Senate’s independence,” following Estrada's surrender. “To my colleagues in the Minority: The Senate is a co-equal branch of government. It is not a prize to be claimed by anyone. Events of the past few days may have blurred this distinction, but what happened with one of our colleagues today brings it sharply back into focus,” Cayetano wrote in a statement.“So I put one question to you, not as the Majority but as the chamber: will you stand for the Senate’s independence?” he added.According to Cayetano, he acknowledges the difference in leadership between the majority and the minority bloc but said that such matters were the Senate’s business.“But no matter our disagreements, we must all agree that it is the Senate’s own business to settle. This chamber answers to God and the people who sent us here, and to no one outside these walls,” Cayetano said. On Tuesday, the Senate minority bloc walked out of the plenary after the proposed amendment to its rules to allow senators to participate remotely in sessions was raised. Apart from upholding Senate independence, Cayetano called on the minority to join them in "resisting allowing partisan politics to dictate the chamber’s direction.”“The door is open. What you do with it is yours to answer — to this institution, and to the people watching it,” Cayetano said at the end of this statement. –NB, GMA News