THE Office of the Ombudsman has asked the Senate for a list of media personnel who were on the premises during the shooting incident on May 13 while Sen. Risa Hontiveros commended the journalists for their bravery and professionalism under fire.
“In relation to the fact-finding investigation of this office on the shooting incident/armed confrontation, leading to the lockdown of the Senate on 13-14 May 2026, may we request your office to submit...[a] list of names of media personnel who were at the Senate premises on 13-14 May 2026,” said Maria Melinda Mananghaya-Henson, director of the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Bureau, in a letter to the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau.
She said the requested documents would be part of its fact-finding investigation on the incident.
Many journalists were in the Senate building before and during the shooting incident and some stayed until the early hours of the next morning.
"Rest assured that any documents and information to be submitted will be treated with utmost confidentiality," Mananghaya-Henson said.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier urged "friends from the media to submit their own affidavits" to narrate what took place during the shooting incident "together with the footage that they took." Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca admitted he was first to fire warning shots after seeing a National Bureau of Investigation agent near the Senate building.
Meanwhile, Hontiveros said in her resolution: "Despite being trapped in a building with a potential active shooter, the members of the Senate media exhibited remarkable personal bravery, prioritizing the public's right to information over their own immediate safety by continuing to cover the incident as it occurred.” "In an information landscape increasingly compromised by systemic online disinformation, covert influence operations, and coordinated inauthentic behavior, the impartial reporting of the Senate media serves as an essential pillar of truth, protecting the integrity of our democracy during times of national crisis," Hontiveros said.
