NBI Director Melvin Matibag testifies before the Senate impeachment court on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. — Photo by Niño Jesus Orbeta | INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines — Threats against the president of the Philippines also threaten national security, Director Melvin Matibag of the National Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday as he testified at the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
According to Matibag, the vice president remains the subject of a continuing investigation because of her videotaped Nov. 23, 2024, media conference in which she said she had hired someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez — if she were killed.
“From our law enforcement perspective, we’re treating the threat made by the vice president not as a threat but as a plan for killing our president, and that is a threat to the president which we also consider a threat to our national security,” Matibag said in a mix of English and Filipino as the prosecution’s final witness for the fourth article of impeachment.
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