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Emmanuel Tupas - The Philippine Star
May 23, 2026 | 12:00am
Police personnel guide the media after the exchange of gunshots inside the Senate of the Philippines in Pasay, Metro Manila on May 13, 2026.
AFP / Jam Sta Rosa
MANILA, Philippines — The number of gunshots fired by the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms personnel, led by suspended OSAA chief Mao Aplasca, toward National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents at the Senate building was an overkill, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said yesterday.
The CIDG’s Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II made public the results of their forensic investigation that showed there were 44 bullet shells recovered by police investigators on the second floor of the Senate building, the site of the shooting incident on May 13.
Of the 44 shells, 36 were recovered from the Senate building and eight from the area of the Government Service Insurance System where the NBI agents were deployed.
Morico said of the 36 casings retrieved from the Senate side, 26 were from the 9mm CZ Scorpion Evo 3 firearm which Aplasca used in the shooting.
The eight other shells were from the firearms of OSAA personnel Joemil Ledesma and Ramil Montilla.
The eight other casings were from the firearm of NBI agent Darwin Francisco.
“Based on the investigation conducted by our investigators, basically overkill. That’s why we call it panic firing,” he said at a news briefing in Camp Crame.
An investigation showed the NBI agents also fired shots as suppression fire and not to engage Aplasca and his personnel in a shootout.
The CIDG has recommended the filing of criminal complaints against Aplasca and two other OSAA personnel for violation of Republic Act 11917, or the Private Security Services Industry Act.
‘Trigger happy’
Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday said it seemed Aplasca was “trigger happy” when he fired several shots at retreating NBI agents to scare them away, on suspicions that they were raiding the Senate to serve fugitive Sen. Ronald dela Rosa his International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.
Lacson said this based on the recent findings of investigators.
This belied the Senate leadership’s claim that it was under attack by NBI agents allegedly planning to storm the chamber to arrest ICC suspect Dela Rosa, who hid in the Senate from May 11 to 13 before he slipped out hours after the gunfire.
“There are already initial findings that our OSAA became ‘trigger happy,’ that he fired first with several bursts. The conclusion is not clear yet. We will stick to the facts as it happened, as it unfolded,” Lacson said over radio dzBB yesterday.
He said while he has no issue with Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III’s call for a committee of a whole investigation on the May 13 shooting, the hearing should focus on how the incident could help the Senate craft “legislative measures or administrative remedies” to prevent a repeat of the chaos.
“Let us not get caught up in the investigation aspect. We’ll become a spectacle once more if we keep pointing fingers. So, let’s just limit ourselves to a positive approach,” Lacson said in a TrueFM interview. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab
