Senator Erwin Tulfo said the Senate minority bloc plans to question the chamber’s leadership on Monday over the shooting incident inside the Senate premises on May 13.
Speaking in a radio interview on Super Radyo dzBB, Tulfo called for a thorough investigation to determine whether the incident was an actual attack or a staged event.
“The majority was saying no it wasn’t staged, we were under attack… some quarters said, however, that it was staged… the NBI said no, we did not attack. This probably needs to be explained and the people are waiting,” he said.
Malacañang likewise disputed Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s assertion that the chamber came under attack.
“Was it under attack? It was not,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in a press briefing Monday.
“The Senate was not under attack, you can see that from the news… It was a statement only by Senator Alan Cayetano. As far as we are concerned, as far as the government is concerned, the Senate was never under attack,” she added.
Tulfo said Monday’s plenary session would tackle issues related to the incident, including accusations by the Office of the Ombudsman that the Senate was refusing to comply with a subpoena for CCTV footage and was defying a six-month suspension order against Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca.
“The minority will discuss it in the morning. It is quite embarrassing that there are subpoenas and we have an ongoing investigation, yet we do not want to cooperate. It’s really a bad example as an institution that we are not complying with the investigation of the Ombudsman. We need to obey,” he said.
Tulfo also said he had no personal knowledge of any effort to remove Cayetano amid reports of continued political instability following the recent leadership change.
He said Cayetano had claimed some majority members were approached by members of the minority bloc, but neither he nor Senator Raffy Tulfo had been involved in such discussions.
“When the media asked me about it before, I was humiliated by that, saying, ‘There is none, there is no coup,’ only to find out there actually was a coup. Now, I have no idea if there is a coup. I am only reading what Senator Cayetano is saying, that some members of the majority have been spoken to by some members of the minority,” he said.
Tulfo said minority senators had left the Senate building before the shooting because Cayetano limited an executive lounge meeting to majority members.
“The caucus is behind closed doors. It’s for the majority only. So what is the minority supposed to do? Just hang around and gossip? It’s unfair that we are being accused because we left,” he said.
He also urged Senate leadership to cooperate fully with law enforcement authorities.
“I guess the only way to change this is for us to keep on doing our jobs and keep on working. Let’s not sacrifice our countrymen and the bills that we need to pass,” Tulfo said.
