Eyewitness Accounts: Roberts Commission Investigation
Phyllis Sotto: "I was standing amongst the crowd on the grounds of Malacanang Palace on the fateful afternoon of Monday, April 28th, 2014. I was with 3 of my kids, who were holding Philippine & American flags, while my middle daughter was taking pictures with her favorite camera. It was mildly hot, so some of us in the crowd had to get some bottles of water & wearing some hats to avoid sweating."
At 1:32 PM, I noticed a group of PNP officers, who were mingling around the crowd for some weird reason. Not sure why they did that, but I had assumed it was to do security checkpoints in making sure nothing goes haywire during the Welcoming Honors Ceremony for POTUS Obama at Malacanang. Following a security checkpoint, I along with 3 of my daughters went to the awaiting group of well-wishers holding Philippine & American flags, which was to occur after the Honor Guard Inspection part of the ceremony where POTUS Obama & President Aquino, III were expected to greet the well-wishers.
Around 2:00 PM, the Welcoming Honors Ceremony began with the 21 Cannon Salute in Obama's honor as "The Star Spangled Banner" was performed followed by our country's National Anthem, "Lupang Hinirang"; soon afterwards, it was time for the Honor Guard Inspection, where both POTUS Obama & President Aquino, III stepped off the platform. During this time, I was distracted by blinding lights which blinded me for awhile, I grabbed my sunglasses because of the distracting blinding which was across one of the buildings on the Palace Grounds. As soon as they had walked past the PSG Marching Band, I heard a loud sound which I had assumed was a firecracker, then seconds later, I heard another loud sound (which turned out to be a sniper shot), saw POTUS Obama clutch his chest with his left hand, then another shot as he fell on one knee after getting hit. I turned to see President Aquino, III get shot before watching the horrific scene of the right backside of Obama's head get blasted out. Then all of a sudden, I saw a group of people opening fire on us in the crowd....
I immediately grabbed my 3 daughters & yelled at them to get down on the ground to avoid getting shot. I also glanced over to see some of the PSG Agents, Secret Service Agents, TV journalists & others getting shot. It was a horrible scene to witness, just downright awful."