Suspended Acting Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca on Wednesday maintained that the Senate was under attack during the May 13 shooting incident, alleging that surveillance footage of the encounter was altered to support the government’s narrative.
Aplasca countered recent Malacañang and police findings by revealing that his team is compiling the unedited CCTV recordings to prove that a security breach did take place.
“We are preparing the complete video, because what they did, they spliced the videos and they just selected the videos that will support their narrative [na yung] sinabi nila, walang attack,” Aplasca told reporters.
(…their narrative that what they said was true, that there was no attack.)
His statement directly challenges the pronouncement of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who recently stated that the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) initial investigation found no evidence of an assault inside the Senate complex. Remulla’s statement contradicted earlier assertions made by Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano.
“All evidence points that there was no attack at the Senate,” Remulla said during a press briefing.
Remulla added that the PNP’s investigative records have already been turned over to a joint panel of prosecutors from the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman.
The controversial shootout erupted on May 13 between personnel from the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), transpiring while Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa was reportedly taking refuge inside the building.
Following the bloody confrontation, the Office of the Ombudsman placed Aplasca under a six-month preventive suspension. Aplasca previously admitted to firing the initial shot during the standoff, but maintained it was merely a warning shot directed at the NBI operatives.