Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Aplasca admits they fired first, calls it ‘standard ops’

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca admitted that he was the first to fire during the shooting the previous night inside the Senate building against agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

In an interview with 24 Oras on May 14, Aplasca said he fired a “warning shot” after seeing armed NBI agents, which he described as part of the standard operating procedure of the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms.

“Kung hindi sila dumating dito, wala pong mangyayaring barilan [o] putukan, kung wala sila dito sa premises ng Senate,” he said.

According to Aplasca, a verbal warning was first issued to the NBI agents, who had already identified themselves as members of the said agency.

He said they asked the agents to drop their firearms, but instead of complying, members of the NBI reportedly raised their guns, prompting him to fire the warning shot.

Aplasca added that while they were expecting for the NBI agents to lower their guns after the warning shots, the shooting exchange happened between the two parties.

“Gumanti po sila ng pagbabaril sa amin kaya napaatras po kami ng kaunti at doon na po tuloy-tuloy ang exchange of gunfire,” he said.

Aplasca said that the investigation on NBI’s motive on the retaliation is still ongoing.

Earlier today, the Southern Police District identified Mel Oragon, 44, as the suspect for the aforementioned shooting incident.