The Senate majority lobbed a challenge to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla: suspend National Bureau of Investigation director Melvin Matibag — after Remulla ordered yesterday the immediate suspension of Senate acting Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca.

Remulla said Aplasca would be suspended for six months over his involvement in the shooting incident at the Senate on 13 May.

He said the suspension would allow for an impartial investigation of the incident by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Senate President Alan Cayetano, however, doubled down and insisted that Remulla also suspend Matibag over the same incident.

Cayetano, in a virtual briefing on Friday, said that Matibag was “more [of] a suspect” than Aplasca, who admitted that he fired first against an NBI agent who attempted to breach the Senate’s second floor wing. He claimed, however, it was only a “warning shot.”

“We do not want to set a bad example in the independent investigation and we do not want to put the Senate in harm’s way,” Cayetano said.

Aside from being unable to maintain peace and order in the Senate, Remulla questioned why Aplasca instigated the commotion by firing the first shot against law enforcement officers who were seen around the premises of the Senate.

Matibag, meanwhile, said Senator Robin Padilla, who left the Senate with Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa hours after the shooting broke out, is now a “person of interest.”

“A person of interest in the sense that they should be the first to answer when we ask them, ‘Where is Senator Bato?’ Matibag said in a television interview.

Aplasca is also considered a person of interest, according to Matibag.

Though he did not place Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano in the same category, the NBI chief said Cayetano owed the public an “explanation” for the incident, after he had earlier said that Dela Rosa was under the Senate’s “protective custody.”

“In my view, he is not a person of interest, but Cayetano owes the public an explanation because Senator Bato was under their protective custody which prevented us from arresting him last Monday,” Matibag said.

False narrative

Cayetano was adamant that Matibag was feeding the President a “false narrative” about what really transpired during the incident in the Senate.

“I assume that the President is speaking the truth. The problem is, is he being told the truth?” he said.

Marcos, in a video address, said the armed men who swarmed the Senate were not law enforcers, particularly not NBI operatives, citing an assurance from Matibag.

Matibag asserted that no NBI operatives were deployed to the Senate on Wednesday to apprehend De la Rosa over an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant, as they recognized the protective custody granted by the Senate to the embattled former Philippine National Police chief.

CCTV footage clearly showed NBI agents attempting to open a door at the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) building adjacent to the Senate.

The Senate shooting incident came two days after the NBI’s first botched attempt to arrest De la Rosa.

Matibag later admitted that he sent a team of four to six NBI agents to the GSIS compound at the request of GSIS president and general manager Wick Veloso to maintain peace and order outside the complex amid the protests for Dela Rosa.

Initial investigation showed the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms officers fired 27 rounds, while the NBI discharged five rounds. The OSAA also claimed to have seen two males wearing black bulletproof vests with NBI markings.