Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano (Tagalog: [kajɛˈtano]; born October 28, 1970), also known by his initials APC, is a Filipino lawyer, politician, and former diplomat who served as the 33rd president of the Senate from May 2026 until his removal from the post in June 2026. Cayetano had the second-shortest total tenure as Senate president at 23 days. He disputed his ouster from the position on June 3, then conceded to the new majority bloc led by Senate President pro tempore Sherwin Gatchalian on June 17.
A Senator of the Philippines since 2022 and previously from 2007 to 2017, Cayetano has also served as Senate majority leader (2013 to 2016) and has had two stints as Senate minority leader (2010 to 2013 and 2025 to 2026). He served as the 26th speaker of the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2020 and as the 26th secretary of foreign affairs from 2017 to 2018. Since 2021, Cayetano has been an independent politician after leaving the Nacionalista Party.
Born and raised into a political family based in Taguig, Cayetano is the son of former senator and lawyer Rene Cayetano. He entered national politics in 1998 after being elected to the House of Representatives representing Taguig–Pateros, a post he held until 2007, when he was first elected to the Senate. In 2012, he and his sister Pia, were the largest spenders of pork barrel during the height of the pork barrel scandal. He unsuccessfully ran for vice president in the 2016 elections as the running mate of Rodrigo Duterte, who would win the presidency. He resigned from the Senate in 2017 to serve as Duterte's foreign affairs secretary, a role he held until 2018.
In 2019, Cayetano was elected back to the House of Representatives. During this stint, he was elected as speaker of the House. As speaker, he became the chairperson of the organizing committee for the controversial 2019 SEA Games, where P9.5 billion in taxpayer money was used to construct the overpriced main sports venue. He was also appointed chairperson of the Defeat COVID-19 Ad Hoc Committee during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, during which media publications ranked the country's response to the pandemic as among the worst in the world. He was later ousted from the House Speakership position by the Velasco bloc.
In 2022, Cayetano was elected back to the Senate for a third nonconsecutive term. On May 11, 2026, Cayetano assisted Senator Ronald dela Rosa in returning to the Senate after six months in hiding, leading to a three-day standoff at the Senate during attempts by law enforcement to arrest dela Rosa under an International Criminal Court warrant. On the same day, he was elected Senate president after he orchestrated the ouster of Senator Tito Sotto from the position amidst the second impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte. A fake shooting incident allegedly plotted by Cayetano was conducted inside the Senate to help dela Rosa's escape from the law. A few session days later, he was ousted by the Gatchalian-Sotto bloc, becoming second shortest Senate president stint in Philippine history. Cayetano has been embroiled in the flood control controversy in his bailiwick of Taguig City along with illegal reclamation activities in Laguna de Bay worth billions of pesos. He was also named to have at least ₱6.7B in insertions in the 2025 national budget, named the most corrupt budget in Philippine history.
Alan Peter Schramm Cayetano was born in Mandaluyong on October 28, 1970 to Filipino lawyer Renato "Compañero" Cayetano and kindergarten teacher Sandra Schramm, an American of German ethnicity from Michigan. He was raised in Parañaque and moved to Taguig in 1991. Although he inherited United States citizenship by descent, he relinquished his U.S. citizenship in 1998, which was formally granted in 1999.
Cayetano resides with his family in Bagumbayan, Taguig. His wife, Lani, is the incumbent mayor of Taguig and formerly represented the first and second districts of Taguig–Pateros at the House of Representatives of the Philippines. His older sister, Pia, is an incumbent Senator and formerly represented the second district of Taguig at the House of Representatives of the Philippines, where she was also a Deputy Speaker. His youngest brother, Lino, is a film and television director as well as a former congressman and mayor of Taguig, while his other brother Ren is a former councilor of Muntinlupa. The Cayetano family is considered one of the Philippines' political dynasties.
In the 1980s, Cayetano admitted to having nearly been expelled from high school at the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School in Muntinlupa due to him regularly joining his father Rene at the Batasang Pambansa instead of attending class.
In college, he studied political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman and graduated in 1993. He was an elected member of the UP Diliman University Student Council. On September 17, 1990, Cayetano and other UP students attended a rally organized in front of the US Embassy in Ermita, Manila, expressing opposition to the presence of American bases in the Philippines during the visit of American diplomat Richard Armitage. According to eyewitnesses, when the students were violently dispersed with tear gas by the Western Police District and detained, Cayetano's first lines to a police officer was stating that he was the son of politician Rene Cayetano, after which he and fellow councilor Roby Alampay were released from police custody.
He later finished his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law in 1997, graduating 2nd Honors (silver medalist). Thereafter, he was admitted to the Philippine bar in 1998.
Councilor of Taguig (1992–1995)
Cayetano, then a junior year college student at University of the Philippines, was elected as councilor of the then-municipality of Taguig in 1992. Elected at the age of 21, he was the youngest elected councilor in the country in 1992, and served alongside actor Rene Requiestas and six other councilors. He became Taguig's Majority Floor Leader and held various positions, such as the vice-chairperson of the People's Law Enforcement Board.
From 1992 to 1993, Cayetano concurrently served as the chairman of the National Capital Region Chapter of the National Movement of Young Legislators.
Cayetano was elected vice mayor of Taguig in the 1995 local elections, but was only proclaimed on June 20, 1998, ten days before the end of his term, due to contentious electoral disputes with his opponent Loida Labao-Alzona, a former mayoral candidate in 1992. The two eventually reconciled with each other, with Cayetano inviting Labao-Alzona to be godmother at his wedding with Lani in 2004. According to Cayetano's profile in the book Senate Memento 2013, the three-year electoral dispute was when Cayetano "realized that his political detractors would spare nothing to stop him in his advocacy for good governance."
House of Representatives (1998–2007)
Cayetano ran for the House of Representatives of the Philippines in 1998 as the representative of the lone district of Taguig–Pateros under the Liberal Party. He was the youngest elected representative at the 11th Congress at age 27.
In his first term as a neophyte legislator, Cayetano immediately held major roles and functions, such as being voted as the assistant majority leader. He was also chairman of the Oversight Committee on Bases Conversion and Sub-Committee on New Schools (Committee on Education), and the vice-chairman of the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.
During his second term in the 12th Congress, Cayetano became deputy majority leader and the vice-chairman of the Committee on Rules.