Senate President Alan Cayetano doubled down on his jabs at National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag after appealing to Ombudsman Boying Remulla to also put him under preventive suspension over the Senate shooting fiasco.
Cayetano, in a virtual briefing on Friday, insisted that Matibag is “more [of] a suspect” than Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca, who was suspended for six months with no pay by the Ombudsman pending its investigation.
Aplasca admitted he was the first to open fire against a supposed NBI agent inside the Senate’s second-floor wing, although he claimed 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.
The Senate chief is adamant that Matibag is feeding President Marcos Jr. “false narratives” about what really transpired during the armed incident inside the Senate on Wednesday.
“I assume that […] the President is speaking the truth. The problem is, is he being told the truth?” he stressed.
Marcos assured senators shortly after the shooting incident that 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 enforce an International Criminal Court warrant, as they recognized the protective custody granted by the Senate to the embattled former PNP chief.
The Senate shooting incident came two days after the NBI’s first botched attempt to arrest De la Rosa.
Matibag, however, admitted that he sent a team of four to six NBI agents to be deployed to the GSIS compound at the supposed request of GSIS President and General Manager Wick Veloso to maintain peace and order outside the complex amid protests for De la Rosa.
The Senate is beside the GSIS, where it rents the compound.
Citing the initial probe, DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla said, “NBI had no warrant to serve,” but 21 agents were deployed to secure the compound at Veloso's request.
However, Cayetano and Aplasca countered that they had been receiving reports that NBI operatives were in the vicinity as early as Wednesday morning.
Aplasca admitted that he fired a warning shot at an alleged NBI agent, only identified as Francisco, whom he saw sitting down on the Senate’s second-floor bridgeway and standing up with an AR 15 on a side sling. The warning shot allegedly prompted Francisco to fire a shot as well.
Initial investigation alleged that 32 shots were fired: 27 from the Office of Senate Sergeant-at-Arms while 5 were from NBI. The OSAA also claimed to have seen two males wearing black bulletproof vests with NBI markings.
Subsequently, a supposed NBI agent was collared by the OSAA and is now facing charges.
Cayetano argued that it was only around this time that the NBI “started to change the narrative.”
He also raised suspicion about the claims that GSIS requests NBI’s presence in the compound, given that it is “not a security agency.”
"Never in the history of GSIS has it ever been called the NBI [for security]…That is my personal belief. I believe [Matibag] is giving [Marcos] false narratives,” he argued.
Prior to the shooting, which occurred around 7:30 p.m, Aplasca said they will not allow any arrest to be made inside the Senate as a matter of compliance with the chamber’s directive.