NBI confirms Sara hired assassin to kill President Marcos

MANILA, Philippines, April 30 ------ The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) confirmed that Vice President Sara Duterte had contracted an assassin to carry out her threat to kill President Marcos and members of his family.

Senior NBI agent Jeremy Lotoc made the confirmation in answer to questions raised by Akbayan party-list Rep. Chel Diokno during the House committee on justice impeachment hearing. “Our investigation is ongoing, but there are people that have already been spoken to. There is an assassin,” Lotoc said.

The hearing yesterday focused on the Nov. 23, 2024 televised assassination threats made by the Vice President against President Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and then speaker Martin Romualdez. The committee played the video of Duterte’s meltdown, which the NBI also authenticated. “The authentication is verifying that the video is the same and true recording of what transpired. We are ensuring that it is not edited, spliced or AI (artificial intelligence)-generated,” NBI agent John Mark Calilung told lawmakers.

The NBI agent outlined the verification process, which included coordination with Meta Platforms to preserve the original URL, screen recording of the livestream and hash value computation to detect any alteration. “The hash value calculation is like a fingerprint of digital file. If the video is edited, the hash value will change,” Calilung said. Meanwhile, Lotoc, who was part of a four-man NBI team that investigated the Vice President, also informed the justice committee that his team had subpoenaed Duterte twice in relation to their investigation, but she did not show up to attend to “office matters” in connection with ongoing hearings in the House of Representatives.

He said in the second letter to the NBI sent by the Vice President’s lawyers, they denied that she had threatened the President, the First Lady and Romualdez. Lotoc and other members of his team likewise confirmed that they had recommended the filing of one count of inciting to sedition and three counts of grave threats against Duterte. The case is still pending with the Department of Justice (DOJ). “There is already a resolution but is currently pending review with the division chief, which will then be transmitted to the Prosecutor General,” DOJ spokesman Polo Martinez said in a message to reporters.

For his part, NBI director Melvin Matibag described the threat against the President as “serious.” “Any threat against the President, and for that matter against any official, we take it seriously. And we investigate,” he told the committee. “We have leads already. We have some personalities that are under surveillance, and we are already tailing them. We are zeroing in on several individuals already,” Matibag added.

Matibag also confirmed the creation of a task force to monitor threats against the President and other top officials. House senior deputy minority leader and ML party-list Rep. Leila de Lima, who endorsed the Saballa impeachment complaint, said Duterte’s videotaped threats “are one of the most serious, if not the most serious, grounds for impeaching her.” House senior deputy majority leader and Iloilo Rep. Lorenz Defensor shared De Lima’s views, calling the Vice President’s public remarks as impeachable offenses, including her “designated survivor” statement.

According to the NBI director, Duterte went to see self-confessed bagman Ramil Madriaga in jail twice, refuting claims by the Vice President that no such visits took place. “We have established that on two occasions, VP Duterte visited the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Taguig, initially trying to visit Ramil Madriaga but we were informed by Madriaga that he didn’t want it, he didn’t want to face her,” Matibag told lawmakers. “At the same time when it happened, the other guy she visited was (former Negros Oriental congressman) Arnie Teves,” he said.

Shortly after this, Madriaga allegedly received death threats in prison. On the subject of unexplained wealth, House justice committee chair and Batangas 2nd district Rep. Gerville Luistro reiterated that Duterte cannot hide behind the bank secrecy law, arguing that the Constitution’s demand for public accountability carries greater weight in an impeachment proceeding.

Source: philstar.com