Malacañang refuted Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s assertion that the Senate was “under attack” during the May 13 shooting incident at the Senate building.

Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said reports and statements from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) did not support Cayetano’s claim that the Senate had been attacked.

“Senate siege, was it under attack? It was not,” Castro said during a press briefing.

“The Senate was not under attack, you can see that from the news, not only from the statements of the NBI and PNP. It was the only statement made by Senator Alan Cayetano,” she added.

“As far as we are concerned, as far as the government is concerned, [the] Senate was never under attack,” Castro said.

During the May 13 shooting incident, Cayetano went live on Facebook and said the Senate was “allegedly under attack” after gunshots were exchanged between the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) personnel inside the Senate premises.

Two days after the incident, Cayetano maintained that the Senate had indeed been “attacked,“ dismissing allegations that the commotion was “staged“ to divert attention from the reported departure of Senator Ronald “Bato“ dela Rosa.

When asked whether the incident could still be considered an attack despite reports that Senate security personnel fired the first warning shot, Cayetano defended his position.

“Kung tututukan kita ng baril, papasukin ko ang bahay mo na may baril ako, nag-warning shot ka, pinutukan kita pabalik, is it not an attack?” Cayetano said.

He stressed that there should be “no question” that the Senate was under attack, noting that lawmakers, employees, and members of the media inside the building were placed in danger during the incident.