Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday flatly denied allegations that government-released CCTV footage capturing Senators Robin Padilla and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa leaving the Senate compound had been spliced or manipulated.
Remulla clarified that the videos presented during Tuesday’s Malacañang briefing were authentic, official recordings sourced directly from the Senate’s own surveillance servers. The statement came after Senate Sergeant-at-Arms retired Gen. Mao Aplasca publicly questioned the authenticity of the tapes.
“No, not at all. May time-stamp naman lahat so it couldn’t have been spliced. Those were direct from CCTV cameras of the Senate, their servers,” Remulla told Palace reporters in a phone patch interview.
(No, not at all. Everything has a time-stamp so it couldn’t have been spliced. Those were direct from CCTV cameras of the Senate, their servers.)
The Interior Secretary reiterated that the embedded chronological data serves as definitive proof that the media was not tampered with.
“And hindi puwedeng spliced iyon dahil may time-stamp din siya,” he added.
(And that could not have been spliced because it also has a time-stamp.)
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) previously released the surveillance footage to prove that Dela Rosa had left the Senate premises. The senator was supposedly under Senate protective custody at the time due to an outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC)-linked arrest warrant.
According to Remulla, the footage tracks three individuals entering the Senate parking area at approximately 2:30 a.m. on May 14. He identified the figures as Padilla, wearing white, and Dela Rosa, wearing a blue jacket, accompanied by a female staff member. The trio boarded a white sport utility vehicle registered to Padilla—verified via Land Transportation Office (LTO) records—and drove toward Makati City, where their movement was further tracked by city surveillance cameras.
When questioned about potential legal liabilities for Padilla regarding his role in facilitating Dela Rosa’s departure, Remulla noted that any subsequent legal actions would fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The timeline reconstruction follows a highly volatile incident last week involving a shooting confrontation between Senate security personnel and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents. While tension remains high, government officials maintained that the Senate “was never under attack” and that NBI operatives respected parliamentary authority while executing operations near the GSIS building to serve the ICC warrant.
Dela Rosa, who served as the PNP chief during the Duterte administration, remains a central figure in the ICC’s ongoing investigation into alleged crimes against humanity tied to the controversial anti-illegal drugs campaign.