Philippine Senate security guards probed over shooting during senator’s escape

Philippine authorities are investigating Senate security officers who fired their weapons without provocation last week while a senator facing an International Criminal Court arrest warrant took shelter inside the legislative building and later escaped.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla said Tuesday the May 13 shooting was not an “attack on the Senate,” adding that no one was in the area when the gunfire erupted.

Remulla identified Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca as the person who fired the first shot.

National Police chief Jose Melencio Nartatez said investigators recovered 44 fired cartridges traced to four firearms, and noted that Aplasca had been summoned for a gun test but had not yet complied.

CCTV footage subpoenaed by investigators from the Senate appeared to show Aplasca firing a rifle.

Remulla said the president has been informed of the findings but has not “given instructions yet,” and the case is being referred to the Department of Justice for further investigation.

Nartatez said Senator Ronald Dela Rosa left the legislative building and entered a car registered to his ally, Senator Robin Padilla, which departed for an undisclosed destination.

“All evidence points that there was no attack on the Senate,” Remulla said, adding that government agents “never set foot” inside the Senate building.

The shooting occurred last week, when Dela Rosa, a 64-year-old former police chief and key figure in ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, took refuge in the Senate on May 11 after the ICC confirmed unsealing his arrest warrant on suspicion of crimes against humanity.

The Senate was rocked by the sound of dozens of gunshots and armed soldiers who stormed the building later that day in an attempt to arrest him.

Dela Rosa was Duterte’s top lieutenant and oversaw a fierce crackdown on drug dealers, which saw thousands shot dead in extrajudicial killings.

Duterte was arrested last year and is awaiting trial before the ICC in The Hague.