The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee meeting led by Senator Erwin Tulfo on Monday is the "biggest cover-up committee hearing" of the generation, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said.

Tulfo is the newly installed Blue Ribbon Committee chair under the bloc led by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian who was appointed by their group as the acting Senate President and President Pro Tempore.

Cayetano stressed that "as a nation" it has to "decide whether the Senate will be under the thumb of Malacañang."

"And now that it is very clear to us that the biggest ever corruption scandal is the flood control scandal. If it's acceptable to us that we witnessed this morning the biggest cover-up committee hearing of our generation,” he said during a press conference hours after the hearing.

Amid the rising tension in the Upper House, Cayetano claimed that there are "two Senates" operating in the country.

“Apparently, because they do not want to agree. We have two Senate now. You have the Senate of the Philippines and you have the Senate of Malacañang,” he said.

“So the Senate of Malacanang had a hearing earlier and you have two Blue Ribbon Committees,” he noted.

“One of which is the Committee de Absuelto whose work focus is to acquit the high officials of the country and the other is seeking the truth,” he added.

A group of minority senators, boosted by the transfer of Senator Chiz Escudero into their ranks last week, got 12 lawmakers to have the edge of Cayetano's 10.

The new majority named Gatchalian as Senate President Pro-Tempore and acting Senate President as they do not have the needed 13 votes to replace Cayetano. Robina Asido/PHS