00:00What's the legal president for the Quorum of Twelve reached by the Gachalian bloc with
00:04Senator Cheese Escudero?
00:06The group led by Acting Senate President Win Gachalian invokes the Avellino Doctrine
00:10of 1949 to validate the leadership change.
00:13With Senator Bato de la Rosa in hiding and Senator Jingoy Estrada in detention, the Gachalian
00:18group argue the two are beyond the Senate's coercive jurisdiction.
00:21In 1949, a landmark Supreme Court ruling was triggered by the walkout of then-Senate President
00:27Jose Avellino and his allies during a Senate session.
00:30The remaining 12 Senators declared the Senate presidency vacant and designated then-Senator
00:34Mariano Cuenco to the post.
00:37The SE declared the Quorum of Twelve was valid and explained the walkout of 10 Senators cannot
00:41prevent the other 12 from passing a resolution.
00:44Wednesday's Senate shakeup is not the first in recent history to invoke the Avellino Doctrine.
00:49A similar case happened in 2015, with four Senators overseas and three detained.
00:54Then-Senate President Franklin Drillon led the chamber in declaring its working membership
00:58was down to 17 and established a Quorum of Twelve.
01:02That leaves us with 17 available Senators, out of which 12 are in the session hall, and
01:08answered the roll call.
01:10The chair therefore declares the presence of the Quorum for the other.
01:13In an interview with Ces Drillon on One News, Franklin Drillon says he considers the position
01:18of Senate President vacant after the leadership shakeup.
01:20He also commends the resolution of the impasse, saying it is already affecting public interest.
01:26He adds, those questioning the validity of the Gachalian majority can go to the courts,
01:31but until then, there is a presumption of regularity.
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