Senator Imee Marcos went on the offensive Friday over the May 13 shooting at the Senate, publicly rebutting accounts that framed the chamber’s security forces as the aggressors while pressing her brother, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to suspend the National Bureau of Investigation’s top officials.
In a Facebook post addressed to those she described as “reversing the narrative,” the senator argued that the Senate’s Sergeant-at-Arms fired a single warning shot only after NBI-linked individuals had already entered the premises without authorization, refused to lay down their long arms and ammunition, and were heard drilling through a wall connecting the GSIS compound to the Senate building. “They were clearly assaulting the Senate, and it was mere self-defense for the Senate to fire a single warning shot, after which several volleys were fired by the NBI, further justifying Senate security’s single shot,” Marcos wrote.
She also raised pointed questions about the NBI’s stated purpose for being in the area, arguing that if Director Melvin Matibag’s claim that agents had no instructions to arrest Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa was true, there was no reason for the Senate to have stopped dela Rosa from leaving — and equally, no reason for the NBI to have been there at all without coordinating with the Senate President or the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms.
On the broader legal question of dela Rosa’s ICC warrant, Marcos argued the administration’s own “wait for the Supreme Court resolution” stance demonstrated that even within the executive branch, the matter of whether dela Rosa should be arrested had not been settled. She further invoked the government’s longstanding position that the Philippines does not recognize ICC jurisdiction, noting there was no confirmed Interpol request and that DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla himself had said any arrest would need to go through the Philippine Court of Tax Appeals and local courts.
The senator also challenged the basis for any obstruction of justice charge, writing that none of the senators had personal knowledge of any act imputed to dela Rosa and that no domestic case for crimes against humanity was pending against him in Philippine courts.
Separately, Marcos disclosed that a purported NBI confidential agent had been arrested inside the Senate after retrieving a tactical bag left on the second floor staircase near where the shots were fired. She said the individual identified a certain “Atty. Bomediano” — referring to NBI Organized and Transnational Crime Division Chief Jerome Bomediano — as the one who ordered dela Rosa’s apprehension.
In a letter to the President, Marcos formally sought the temporary relief of Matibag, Bomediano, and NBI-National Capital Region Chief Emeterio Dongallo Jr. pending an investigation, citing what she described as “inconsistent public statements” from Matibag — including his claim that NBI personnel were at a hotel fellowship at the time of the shooting, which she said conflicted with video evidence and reports placing NBI agents at or near the Senate premises.
“Such temporary relief is necessary to preserve the integrity and credibility of the investigation and to remove any appearance of undue influence or impropriety,” she said in the letter.
Matibag has denied that any NBI agents were deployed to the Senate that night, that his personnel carried firearms, or that any order to arrest dela Rosa was issued.
