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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
May 15, 2026 | 2:44pm
MANILA, Philippines — Ombudsman Boying Remulla has ordered the six-month preventive suspension of acting Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Roberto "Mao" Aplasca over the May 13 gunfire incident at the Senate.
The suspension issued Friday, May 15, is without pay and takes effect immediately.
Remulla sent the order to the Senate directing it to enforce the preventive measure against Aplaasca, a retired police major general who heads the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA).
Aplasca has admitted firing the first shot — which he describes as a "warning shot" — at the bridge connecting the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) building to the Senate offices in Pasay City.
Government accounts of the gunfire incident remain sharply disputed.
Malacañang, the National Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government have said Aplasca fired the first warning shot at an NBI agent even as he had identified himself while seated at the bridge area.
But Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano and Aplasca have maintained that the warning shot was fired only after armed NBI agents ignored repeated verbal warnings to lower their firearms.
Aplasca defends actions
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Aplasca defended his actions and said his team had followed standard law enforcement procedure.
"We did not anticipate a firefight. Our procedure in law enforcement is first, the verbal warning challenge," he said in Filipino. "Second, if they cooperate with the verbal warning, [they must] clarify why they are there. But that's not what happened. After our verbal warning, they fired back. We have the right to protect ourselves."
Pressed on who fired first, Aplasca later acknowledged that he had fired a warning shot into the air.
He said Senate security personnel moved to confront the NBI agents after they appeared armed on Senate CCTV footage without prior coordination with the OSAA.
"If someone enters your house armed and without permission, even if they are fellow government personnel — our challenge to them is to lower their guns," he said.
Aplasca added that the lack of coordination triggered suspicion among Senate security personnel.
"It is very unusual for the NBI not to coordinate if they are going to the GSIS," he said.
Palace, NBI, DILG account
Aplasca's version differs from the account given by Malacañang, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the NBI.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro and Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, the Ombudsman's brother, said the NBI was deployed to the GSIS premises — not the Senate — at the written request of GSIS President and General Manager Jose "Wick" Veloso, citing security concerns amid the tensions at the upper chamber.
Twenty-one NBI agents arrived at 6:15 p.m. on May 13 and were stationed across the floors of the GSIS building.
According to DILG Secretary Remulla's report to Cayetano, as shared with the media, a certain agent "Francisco" was seated beside a GSIS guard on the second-floor bridge when Aplasca approached him.
NBI Director Melvin Matibag said his agents had no warrant against Sen. Bato Dela Rosa and were not deployed to arrest him.
Lacson: a coordination failure
Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief, assessed Friday that the May 13 incident stemmed from a breakdown in coordination between the two sides.
"As far as the operational aspect of what happened is concerned, if there had been coordination or communication between the two sides, the shooting could have been avoided," Lacson said in an interview on True FM.
Most of the senators known to have still been inside the Senate complex during the gunfire incident were members of the chamber's majority bloc.
As gunshots rang out, several senators allied with Dela Rosa went live on Facebook nearly simultaneously, claiming they were under threat inside the Senate compound.
Aplasca had only recently been reinstalled as acting Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. He replaced retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Rene Samonte, who resigned Monday, May 11, after Dela Rosa criticized Samonte for allowing NBI agents into the Senate complex.
