SENATE LEADERSHIP ROW Published June 5, 2026 1:37pm + Add GMA on Google Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google. A high school teacher on Friday filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to declare that the session at the Senate on June 3, 2026, which vacated all seats and installed Senator Sherwin Gatchalian as the Senate President Pro Tempore, was legally valid and binding.In a 20-page petition for certiorari, Barry Tayam asked the high court to review the acts of respondents Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, and Loren Legarda and determine whether they were “committed with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”The petitioner argued that the newly installed Senate leadership “faces a profound institutional challenge,” as the Cayetanos and Legarda “openly refuse to recognize its legitimacy, vigorously contesting the existence of a statutory quorum” during the June 3 session.He said the institutional crisis at the Senate “does not merely involve internal parliamentary disputes, but directly implicates constitutional mandates,” thereby needing the SC's urgent intervention to restore constitutional order.“To prevent the imminent paralyzation of a co-equal branch of government, avoid the chaotic emergence of dual competing Senate leaderships, and resolve this escalating constitutional crisis, I respectfully invoke the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court as the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution to definitively rule on the validity of the chamber’s reorganization,” the petition read.Specifically, Tayam sought the SC to:Declare that the physical presence and assembly of twelve (12) senators during the session of the 20th Congress on June 3, 2026, constituted a legally valid, binding, and constitutional quorum of the active, available membership of the Senate; Affirm the full legality and constitutional validity of all legislative actions, vacancy declarations, leadership elections, and committee reorganizations executed during the said session.To recall, 12 senators elected Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore after the Senate reconvened Wednesday, paving the way for the minority bloc-led senators in attendance to declare him the acting Senate President.Citing the case of Avelino v. Cuenco, Gatchalian said the Supreme Court had found that an absolute majority of 12 out of 22 members could constitute a constitutional majority for quorum purposes.EXPLAINER: What happened in Avelino v. Cuenco case on Senate leadership change?During the session, new committee chairpersons were also elected, including Senator Erwin Tulfo as chairman of the powerful Blue Ribbon Committee, replacing Pia Cayetano.Alan Cayetano, on the other hand, has insisted that he remains the “legitimate, legal, moral Senate President.”The Cayetano bloc on Thursday also proceeded with the conduct of the flood control hearing, which the Gatchalian bloc called “bogus.”It was Senator Alan Peter Cayetano who administered the oath to the supposed former members of Marines who claimed they delivered suitcases of money to several prominent personalities. His sister Pia presided over the hearing. —AOL, GMA News