‘Dapat mag-resign’: De Lima slams Senate security chief for being ‘trigger-happy’

Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima (Facebook)

Acting Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca has no place in the Senate after showing that he’s the “trigger-happy” type.

Thus, said House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima after iit was reported that Aplasca fired warning shots inside the Senate building during the chaotic events earlier this week.

“Dapat mag-resign o tanggalin na sa pwesto yang trigger-happy na Senate Sgt.-at-Arms na ‘yan. He knows or ought to know na bawal ang warning shots sa rules of engagement,” De Lima, a former senator, told reporter on Friday, May 15.

(That trigger-happy Senate Sergeant-at-Arms should resign or be removed from his post. He knows, or ought to know, that warning shots are prohibited under the rules of engagement.)

“Inilagay niya sa peligro ang buhay ng maraming sibilyan (He put the lives of many civilians in danger,” De Lima said of the Office of the Sergeant-At-Arms (OSAA) chief.

The Ombudsman placed Aplasca under preventive suspension without pay while authorities investigate the incident last Wednesday, which happened during the tense Senate standoff with law enforcement authorities involving Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa had been tagged as “wanted” by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged killings during the previous Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs. He served as Philippine National Police (PNP) chief when the war was launched in 2016.

The shooting at the Senate raised serious questions over the use of firearms, command responsibility, and security judgment inside a civilian government institution.

Reportedly accompanied by Senator Robin Padilla, Dela Rosa allegedly fled the Senate early Thursday. The two senators’ whereabouts are unknown.

Aplasca and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa are “mistahs” or schoolmates at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). They both entered PMA in 1982, but Dela Rosa graduated with the Sinagtala Class of 1986 while Aplasca graduated with Class of 1987.

Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano himself described the Wednesday shooting inside the Senate building as “unprecedented”. In a Facebook livestream during the incident, he said that the Senate was “under attack” and that there could be “an active shooter” within the premises.

The multiple gunshots reportedly traumatized Senate staff and members of the media. — Ellson Quismorio