IN BRIEF: NBI testimony, document errors, and heated exchanges mark Day 4 of Sara Duterte impeachment trial
Sara Duterte's impeachment trial entered its fourth day as the prosecution presented its second witness, NBI Regional Director Atty. Jeremy Lotoc, who testified on the bureau's investigation into the Vice President's alleged threats against President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
The July 13 hearing saw repeated clashes between the prosecution and defense panels, as well as questions from senator-judges over inconsistencies in the NBI documents.
Lotoc also defended the bureau's investigation, saying Duterte's remarks were not protected by freedom of expression and that authorities considered the alleged threats "serious" and "real."
Here's what went down on Day 4 of the trial.
Prosecution requests to move the schedule of NBI Director Melvin Matibag as witness
Before introducing their second witness, the prosecution team requested that NBI Director Melvin Matibag take the witness stand on July 14 before Office of the Vice President Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez.
Yesterday, Matibag wrote to the prosecution panel asking if he could calendar his testimony on or before July 20.
According to him, it's because the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in coordination with the Royal Thai Police, invited the NBI to the inaugural Regional Summit on Scam Center Compounds and Transnational Organized Crime, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, on July 21-22.
"As Director of the Bureau, I will personally attend to represent the NBI at this summit of director- and commissioner general-level law enforcement leaders across the Asia-Pacific, which will require my travel and attendance on those dates," Matibag said.
"I respectfully request that I be scheduled to take the witness stand prior to my departure so that my participation in the Summit will neither disrupt the proceedings nor delay the presentation of my testimony," he added.
However, senator-judge Alan Peter Cayetano found it "bad taste" that the bureau head would dictate to them that he is not available next week.
"We put aside so many important things, and then one witness who is in the government, who is a bureau head, will tell us, 'Sorry,' because he has to be with the FBI. That might be a bad precedent," he said.
The defense team echoed the same sentiment, pointing out how "the prosecution cannot compel the defense and this impeachment court to present witnesses according to their schedule considering also that these witnesses have already been identified."
Presiding officer Chiz Escudero ultimately ordered the prosecution to present the letter submitted by Matibag pending the decision on appeal for his testimony.
Lotoc: NBI issued subpoena to Duterte twice
The prosecution team presented Lotoc as their second witness, after NBI senior agent John Mark Calilung.
Lotoc currently serves as the Regional Director of the NBI-BARMM. Previously, he was the chief of the NBI Cybercrime Division, which investigated Duterte's Zoom conference where she allegedly made a threat against Marcos, his wife, and Romualdez.
Videos from October and November 2024 showed Duterte uttering threatening statements and gestures against the three. A two-minute and 18-second excerpt from Duterte's online media briefing held on Nov. 23, 2024, showed her telling one of the media attendees, "'Wag ka mag-alala Ma'am sa security ko. Kasi may kinausap na akong tao. Sinabi ko sa kanya, 'Kapag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta, at si Martin Romualdez.' No joke, no joke." Other video clips from an October 2024 press conference held in the Office of the Vice President showed Duterte allegedly giving similar statements.
According to Lotoc, when Duterte first claimed that there was an active threat to her life from an alleged government plot named "Operation Romanov," the NBI issued two subpoenas to her as part of their investigation into the threats.
The first one was dated on Nov. 25, 2024 while the second one was issued on Dec. 2, 2024. However, in both instances, Duterte did not personally appear before the NBI and instead sent her lawyer. For the first subpoena, she reasoned that she was occupied with official duties, while in the second, she argued that the NBI fell under the executive branch headed by Marcos.
While the NBI also issued subpoenas to journalists who participated in the meeting in order to ask if they had information on who was threatening Duterte, Lotoc said they had no knowledge of the matter. This made them unable to have a starting point on the case.
Factors NBI considered regarding Duterte's alleged death threats
Lotoc said that they considered several factors in determining that Duterte's alleged death threats were "serious" and "real."
"Number one, the delivery or manner in which the utterances were spoken; number two, the literal meaning of the statement; number three, the nature of the instruction; number four, the relationship between the parties," he explained.
On the first factor, specifically, Lotoc noted that Duterte was "furious and fuming mad when she uttered those words."
"If I'm not mistaken, I think, more or less, walong beses siyang galit na galit at nagmumura at minumura 'yung Presidente, si First Lady, si former Speaker of the House," he said.
He later corrected this and said that Duterte was cursing either Marcos, his wife, or Romualdez only five times.
"To me, as the chief investigator at that time, the utterances made by the Vice President were serious, and the threat was real and actual," he said.
Lotoc: Duterte's alleged threats no longer protected by freedom of speech
Duterte's camp had previously invoked freedom of expression in defending the threat she made against Marcos, his wife, and Romualdez.
However, Lotoc said that these were no longer protected by freedom of speech.
"As a lawyer and being in law enforcement, freedom of speech protects lawful expression, but it does not protect utterances that satisfy the elements of the criminal offense like this one," he said.
"When the second-highest official of the land openly and publicly uttered that she had already contracted a person to kill the highest official of the land, the First Lady, and the former [House] speaker, and that she instructed the person to be relentless in killing them, we failed to see any amount of freedom of speech in that utterance," he added.
He went on to say that if society allows that to happen, then it might encourage others to do the same.
Multiple errors in NBI documents
Lotoc was grilled by both senators-judges as well as the defense over several discrepancies found in the NBI's documents, particularly the complaint affidavit and related records submitted as evidence.
Cayetano was the first one to call this out as he pointed out an error in their affidavit that incorrectly identified Duterte as the Secretary of the Department of Justice instead of the Department of Education.
While Lotoc reasoned that this was just a "typographical error," Cayetano was not convinced. "That's not a typo. A typo means 'yung 'department' naging 'depart.' Department of Justice and Department of Education are two different things," he said.
The same reason was again said by Lotoc when senator-judge Imee Marcos later questioned the timeline of NBI's probe into Duterte's alleged grave threats. She noted that a subpoena to ABS-CBN was dated Nov. 6, 2024, weeks before the bureau said it had been instructed to investigate Duterte's alleged threats on Nov. 23, 2024.
"Kung inutusan kayo noong Nov. 23, ibig bang sabihin, Nov. 6 pa lang, minamanmanan na si vice president? Iniimbistigahan na siya bago pa 'yung Zoom conference sa kongreso?" she asked.
Lotoc later answered, "No, your Honor. I think, I believe that is a typo 'yung date."
These discrepancies later became one of the defense's main lines of attack during the cross-examination of Lotoc, led by defense counsel Atty. Mark Vinluan.
Vinluan questioned another inconsistency in the NBI's records, this time involving the timeline of documents submitted to the DOJ. He pointed out that an Investigation Data Form attached to the bureau's affidavit was sworn before a prosecutor on Feb. 11, 2025, but appeared to have been received by the DOJ on Jan. 30, 2025—nearly two weeks before it was officially executed.
"The discrepancy is not one day or two days," he said.
However, Lotoc was unable to explain the error, reasoning that he was not the one who personally handled the filing or receipt of the documents.
Because of these errors, senator-judge Erwin Tulfo advised Lotoc to file an airtight case next time.
"Madi-dismiss 'yan, 'yung mga kaso na medyo hindi po tight talaga ang kaso. Sayang naman yung inyong pinaghirapan. Doon, ang dami nating nakita. Totoo po talaga nagmura ang bise presidente, nagbanta ang bise presidente. Sang-ayon naman po ako, nakita ko naman po 'yan, pero kapag sa technicalities tayo, doon nagkakaproblema," he said.
Heated exchanges between prosecution and defense
As with the previous sessions, the day's proceedings were marked by frequent objections from the prosecution and defense.
The defense did not interrupt as much when counsel for the prosecution Atty. Virgil Ligutan was questioning the witness. However, Vinluan did request the impeachment court to require Ligutan to speak only in Filipino or English after the latter began talking to Lotoc in Waray.
Despite Ligutan arguing that Filipino "encompasses all the language's dialects," Escudero said that he will only allow it once in a while.
But tensions escalated once the cross-examination began.
When Vinluan began grilling Lotoc on who changed the erroneous dates on the NBI documents, Ligutan objected to this line of questioning.
"That's misleading. My goodness, that's misleading. This council is assuming that somebody changed what? The council failed to elicit any answer from this witness, and now the council is conceiving that somebody changed that and confronting our witness with that," Ligutan said.
"This is the classic case of a misleading question. You assume something that has yet to be established. That's not how we do it, with all due respect," he added.
Lotoc: NBI's investigation was 'evidence-based'
At one point in the trial, Lotoc was asked by the defense if Marcos had any participation in the investigation, to which he answered, "Of course not."
But considering how the NBI and the DOJ fall under the executive branch headed by the President, Vinluan questioned whether the investigation was truly done without bias against Duterte.
"Our investigation is evidence-based," Lotoc maintained. "When we analyzed this, when we followed our phases for analysis, we agreed among ourselves na buo ang ebidensya, nacomply natin ang requirement ng prima facie case. Sinubmit namin 'yan sa DOJ na ang paniwala namin ay kumpleto ang requirement ng kaso."
Day 4 adjourned at 8:12 p.m. after six hours. The trial will continue on Tuesday, July 14, at 2:00 p.m.
Duterte impeachment trial
Duterte is facing a total of four impeachment complaints. The first complaint was filed by a coalition of various organizations on Feb. 2, but was set aside for violating the one-year bar rule. The second was filed on Feb. 9, but was withdrawn to consolidate support for the third complaint.
The third complaint, backed by ML Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima, charged Duterte with culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, plunder or malversation, bribery, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.
The fourth complaint, endorsed by House Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega and Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante, similarly alleged constitutional violations, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other impeachable offenses.
The Senate impeachment court has approved a 92-day trial as of writing. Sixty-two trial dates have been set for House of Representatives prosecutors and 30 for Duterte's defense team, according to a 14-page Pre-Trial Order obtained by The Philippine STAR.
According to House prosecutor Chel Diokno, the articles of impeachment will be presented in the following order: fourth article, first article, third article, and second article.
If the Senate impeachment court finds her guilty of the charges, Duterte will be removed from her current post and permanently barred from holding public office.
