NBI chief testifies threat is now an active plot

he head of the country’s premier investigation agency told the Senate impeachment court that they have started looking into an “active, serious, and continuing” plot to kill the president.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director Melvin Matibag testifying during the impeachment hearing on Tuesday, July 21. Photo by Wendell Alinea/Senate Social Media Unit

Manuel Mogato | July 21, 2026

MANILA — The head of the country’s premier investigation agency told the Senate impeachment court that they have started looking into an “active, serious, and continuing” plot to kill the president.

Lawyer Melvin Matibag, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) director, told the 21 senator-judges sitting in an impeachment court that he opened a new investigation this year to identify and locate an assassin contracted by Vice President Sara Duterte.

“This is a continuing investigation, and we cannot divulge any details,” he told the impeachment court when cross-examined by the Vice President’s lawyer, Mark Vinluan.

“I cannot disclose the identity of our persons of interest because[…] this is a continuing and open investigation.”

“Our investigation will be compromised, and it will endanger our informants on the ground who can provide human intel,” he added. (Also read: Vice President’s threats were “serious” — witness)

Matibag said the NBI considered any threats to the life of President Ferdinand Marcos as a national security threat because they believed the vice president’s threats, made in 2024, were serious, active and continuing.

“The threats have crossed into a kill-plot,” he added. (Also read: Prosecution to present proof that Duterte hired ‘hitman’ to kill Marcos)

Matibag took over as NBI chief only in February and immediately started reviewing the grave threats and inciting to sedition case filed by the NBI before the justice department.

The Justice Department is still conducting a preliminary investigation more than a year after the NBI complaint was filed.

In April, Matibag said he created a task force to open a fresh investigation to identify an assassin hired by Duterte, patterned after the five-step methodology of the US Secret Service.

Matibag also told the court the vice president has a history of violence, citing two incidents when she was mayor - one was when she threw punches at a court sheriff for leading a demolition operation and when he claimed the vice president was involved in extrajudicial killings in the city as a mayor.

But so far, the NBI has yet to identify a specific assassin hired by the vice president.

During cross-examination, the defense lawyer tried hard to discredit Matibag’s testimony, insinuating he was a biased witness by pointing out he was married to a Laguna congresswoman who was among 257 members of the House of Representatives who endorsed the impeachment complaint to the Senate.

The defense lawyer also insinuated that Matibag was appointed to his position by the president.

The defense lawyer also focused on technicalities to destroy Matibag’s testimony by presenting an unsigned and unsubscribed affidavit from a former police officer in Davao City who linked Duterte to extrajudicial killings when she was mayor from 2010 to 2013.