President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged senators on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, to “get back to work” after lawmakers belonging to the majority bloc skipped sessions for two consecutive days.
Marcos Calls for Legislative Action
In an interview with reporters in Manila, Marcos said the executive department has a lot of work to do, especially in crafting and amending laws that would be beneficial for the public amid the prevailing oil crisis.
“I’m afraid whatever all these events that we have been witnessing has thrown the Senate and its leadership, the whole Senate, into disarray. It has discredited the leadership. It stopped the essential business of legislation in government,” Marcos said.
“The best description I can have, the legislature is now in disarray, that is exactly an opposite of what we are trying to achieve. We are trying to achieve some form of stability and so that people can get on with their lives, so that people can count on the assistance of the government during this time of an emergency. We cannot do that if the legislature decides to stay at home and have a vacation,” he added.
Marcos Criticizes Majority Bloc
Marcos took a swipe at the majority senators, saying that accompanying their colleague to wherever he needs to go is not a valid reason to cancel a plenary session.
Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said boycotting the session on June 1 to 2 was part of the majority bloc’s protest against what they described as efforts to undermine the chamber's independence and stop a scheduled Blue Ribbon Committee hearing.
This prompted the senators in the minority bloc to call for the resignation as the Senate leader, tagging the claims of Cayetano as “figment of their imagination.”
