President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday night urged the public to keep calm, adding that the government is not behind the incident at the Senate where several gunshots were heard that resulted in a lockdown.
“Nais kong mapaalam na sa lahat ng ating mga kababayan, itong pangyayari na ito ay, tayo ay maging kalma lang po (I would like to inform all our countrymen that this incident is, let us just remain calm),” the President said.
Marcos said he had already talked with Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano and they have agreed to tell the people to “calm down” and assure them that investigations will be conducted to determine what happened and who is behind the incident.
“We will get to the bottom of this. Aalamin natin kung sino ang gumawa nitong gulo na ito. Ito ba ay talagang nagka-, nagka-enkwentro lang o ito ba ay may kasama sa mga destab o nagsisimula ng gulo. Kailangan po natin malaman yan (“We will get to the bottom of this. We will find out who created this mess. Did they really have an encounter or did they have someone with the destab or start a mess? We need to know that),” he added.
The President said the Senate and the Philippine National Police (PNP) will conduct parallel investigations on the incident.
Marcos also said that as far as the Executive branch is concerned, they are not behind the incident.
“Masasabi ko lang at parang hindi po mag-aalala ang ating ang taong bayan. Hindi po gobyernong gumawa nito. Walang pumasok na tiga-labas na sundalo na militar na NBI sa Senado (I can only say that, so that the people will not be worried, it was not the government that did this. No soldier, military, or NBI entered the Senate),” he said.
“Hindi po natin alam kung sino yun na nag-sumubok na pumasok at saka dahil dun na’y nagkaputukan, aalamin po natin, kinukuha po natin at kinukolekta natin iyan, lahat ng ebidensya na nandyan (We do not know who tried to enter and, because of that, there was a shooting. We will find out, we are collecting all the evidence),” he added.
The President also said that there was never an attempt to arrest Senator Ronald dela Rosa.
Marcos said he even instructed the NBI to remove their agents who may be at the Senate after the Supreme Court issued an order asking Dela Rosa to submit his comment on his petition to block his arrest within 72 hours.
He said the police and Marines personnel in the Senate are assigned there to protect and ensure the safety of everyone in the Senate while the armed personnel in civilian clothes are part of the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) that was also there to provide security.
“Kalma lamang po, asahan ninyo yung gobyerno po ninyo hindi gagawin ito (stay calm and you can be sure that your government will not do this),” he added.