Accountability in Senate ‘shooting’
Using CCTV footage solicited from several sources, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the police released their categorical conclusion about the Senate shooting incident last week: there was no attack on the Senate. All the shots—with 44 slugs found so far—came from inside the building.
This contradicts Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s belligerent insistence that National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents were storming the Senate to serve an arrest warrant on Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, whom he had placed on Senate protective custody. The privilege was granted despite legal experts and even the Supreme Court rejecting Dela Rosa’s petition to deny the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC has accused Dela Rosa of being a coconspirator in the crimes against humanity charges it filed against former President Rodrigo Duterte, now awaiting trial at The Hague, Netherlands. As Duterte’s police chief, the senator is considered the main architect and implementor of Oplan Double Barrel, the antidrug campaign that resulted in at least 6,000 extrajudicial killings.
Full battle gear
In a TV interview before the shooting incident, Dela Rosa revealed that Cayetano himself had convinced him to surface after six months’ absence from the Senate following reports of his impending arrest, to cast the crucial 13th vote needed to oust then Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III. Though Cayetano has denied it, the ouster move was widely seen as connected to the Senate convening itself as an impeachment court for the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
To recall, shots rang out inside the Senate building Wednesday night last week, creating chaos and panic among the Senate staff and media. Senate sergeant-at-arms Mao Aplasca later admitted to firing the first shot and several warning shots at NBI agents supposedly trying to breach the Senate premises. Seen donning full battle gear before the shooting started, Aplasca said Senate security forces were about to arrest an individual, without naming who.
CCTV would subsequently show Dela Rosa leaving the Senate in Sen. Robin Padilla’s vehicle early Thursday morning, with Cayetano shrugging off this clear breach of protective custody. Dela Rosa was not under arrest so he was free to go, he said.
Official narrative
Though law enforcement officials did not describe the shooting incident as “staged,” they presented CCTV clips Tuesday that quickly demolished the Senate’s official narrative: the NBI agents were not inside the Senate but at the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) building, securing its shared exits with the Senate on the request of its chief, Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso. With Dela Rosa calling for people power, a responding mob could destroy billions of pesos worth of artwork on GSIS walls, DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla said. The GSIS, too, had communicated the arrangements to the Senate earlier, he added of this telling detail that Cayetano and Aplasca had conveniently omitted.
The NBI “agent” arrested turned out to be an unarmed volunteer driver sent to retrieve a bag forgotten by an agent who had secured the GSIS. While he tested positive for gunpowder burns, several Supreme Court cases have ruled that paraffin tests are “inconclusive,” and could result from handling anything from cigarettes to fertilizer.
Adding to the footage’s damning revelations was Aplasca’s refusal to appear before DILG authorities to answer questions on the incident. Surely Aplasca wouldn’t have acted without clearance or instruction from his boss, Cayetano? That he was personally nominated for the post by Dela Rosa, his classmate at the Philippine Military Academy, also adds to doubts on where his loyalty lies. Ombudsman Jesus Remulla has since suspended Aplasca for six months, though other charges might be forthcoming.
Obstruction of justice
But shouldn’t the Senate leadership be held accountable as well, just as Padilla should be sanctioned for his active role in this incident? Obstruction of justice, for one. Through its inaction, the Senate may have recklessly—alright, inadvertently—allowed Dela Rosa to slip through its custody. Harboring a fugitive isn’t what we expect from lawmakers, as they had refused to do so in the earlier cases of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and former Senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV.
It is imperative that the DILG, the police, and the NBI continue to pursue a thorough, impartial, and comprehensive investigation of this Senate fiasco, where lives were unnecessarily put at risk and the rule of law brazenly discarded. Senators should meanwhile reconsider their role in advancing democratic space that has been compromised by the lack of transparency and responsibility among their leaders. Should they allow ambition, shifting political alliances, and misplaced loyalty define the institution?
No less than full accountability for involved parties should be expected, if only to restore the Senate’s credibility, integrity, and independence willfully trampled on by leaders wrongfully protecting one of their own.
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