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Philippine Senate Building Locked Down After Gunshots on May 13
Gunshots inside the Senate building prompted a lockdown on May 13. Congressman Kiko Barzaga posted claims of multiple deaths and an assassination attempt before deleting them. Social media accounts later amplified the posts.
May 20, 6:00 AM·1m read1 source
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Gunshots inside the Senate building on May 13 led to a temporary lockdown of the facility. Rappler reporters Patrick Cruz and Jairo Bolledo documented the sequence of events that followed the incident. Congressman Kiko Barzaga posted on social media that multiple people had died and that the shooting was an assassination attempt against senators. He later deleted the posts.
Facebook and TikTok accounts, including one operated by Krizette Chu, captured and shared screenshots of Barzaga's posts before they were removed. Lorraine Badoy posted that the incident was an attempt to change the Senate majority. Christa Escudero tracked how quickly the claims circulated across platforms after the shooting.
Rappler previously reported on Barzaga's pattern of posting unverified statements.
The Senate incident occurred one week after the May 5 arrest of social media operator Franco Mabanta in Pasig City. Mabanta was detained along with four others during an entrapment operation based on an extortion complaint filed by former speaker Martin Romualdez.
Rappler and The Nerve had monitored Mabanta's activities before he established Peanut Gallery Media Network in 2024. During the Duterte administration, he publicly supported the Dutertes and their allies while criticizing mainstream media outlets.
