Senate majority declares committee posts vacant, installs Tulfo as Blue Ribbon chair

The realignment moved through the Senate plenary on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. A twelve-senator bloc led by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian voted to declare committee chairships vacant, removed Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano from the Senate presidency, and installed Gatchalian as Senate president pro tempore and acting Senate president. Among the seats they reassigned was the Blue Ribbon Committee chair, which passed from Sen. Pia Cayetano to Sen. Erwin Tulfo. Tulfo announced shortly afterward that the next Blue Ribbon hearing on the flood control investigation would be reset from Thursday, June 4 to Monday, June 8, 2026, to allow members time to review the list of resource persons. Pia Cayetano disputed the move publicly, citing the 1987 Constitution and the Rules of the Senate, which the Cayetano camp reads as requiring a majority of thirteen senators to effect such amendments. Alan Peter Cayetano stated he remains Senate president and that the Blue Ribbon probe would proceed under his sister on June 4 as scheduled. The chairship of the Blue Ribbon Committee directly controls the flood control evidentiary track: the subpoena list, the order of resource persons, the calendar of hearings, and the partial report that flows to the Office of the Ombudsman. The 18 ex-Marines whose invitations Pia Cayetano had withdrawn on June 2 and restored on June 3, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez whom she invited on June 3, are calendared under the contested June 4 schedule.