By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet and Brian Campued
Last week, the Senate Impeachment Court began hearing Article IV of the Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Duterte, specifically the alleged grave threats she made against President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Senior Agent John Mark Calilung stood before the court to testify on the evidence presented by the House prosecution panel and answered queries during the cross-examination of the defense team.
On Monday, July 13, the impeachment trial resumed with another witness presented by the prosecution—NBI BARMM Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc—to corroborate Calilung’s previous testimony and unfold more pieces of evidence in support of Article IV.
The following are the highlights of today’s trial:
- Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo asked the defense team about details on the alleged “Operation Romanov” and whether they will present a witness to shed light on the said topic.
Atty. Mark Vinluan, counsel for the respondent, said the presentation of the witness will depend on the course of the trial.
- House prosecutor Rep. Lorenz Defensor asked the Impeachment Court to allow National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag to take the witness stand on Tuesday, July 14, due to his scheduled attendance for an upcoming conference in Thailand.
Senator-judges Alan Peter Cayetano and Sherwin Gatchalian as well as Atty. Vinluan opposed the prosecution’s request, noting that this violates the five-day notice rule.
Escudero deferred action on the prosecution’s request to present Matibag on Tuesday but ordered the prosecution to submit a copy of Matibag’s request letter and travel authorization for the Impeachment Court’s evaluation.
- Atty. Virgil Ligutan, counsel for the prosecutors, presented NBI BARMM Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc, a lawyer by profession, as the prosecution’s second witness.
Lotoc, who was chief of the NBI Cybercrime Division before being appointed regional director, led the probe on Vice President Duterte’s online press conference, where she allegedly issued grave threats against President Marcos Jr. and his family.
- Lotoc said the NBI started its investigation on the same day as Duterte’s press conference was held on Nov. 23, 2024.
He directed Senior Agent John Mark Calilung to follow four stages of investigation in handling VP Sara’s case: identification and preservation of digital evidence; collection and hashing of digital evidence; analysis and attribution; and legal evaluation and case filing.
After conducting an open-source investigation, the NBI discovered specific utterances of VP Duterte in the Oct. 18, 2024 online press conference: “Gusto kong tanggalin yung ulo niya ba.”; “I realized toxic na itong relationship [between Vice President and President]; “I imagine myself cutting his head.”
Atty. Ligutan: “Kaninong ulo ba yung nire-refer ng vice president na gusto niyang tanggalin?”
Lotoc: “The President of the Republic of the Philippines.”
- The NBI issued subpoenas to journalists who were present during the Nov. 23, 2024 press briefing. The agency subpoenaed Duterte twice but the vice president failed to appear because of office matters and instead sent her lawyer.
- Lotoc was asked for his impression of Duterte when she said she’d contracted an “assassin” to “kill” the President, the First Lady, and Rep. Romualdez.
Lotoc answers: “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.”
According to Lotoc, they considered the following factors in their analysis of content and context: the delivery or manner in which utterances were spoken; the literal meaning of the statement; the nature of the instruction; and the relationship between the parties.
- At least seven timestamps showcasing VP Sara’s invectives and profanities were aired during the trial.
Lotoc noted the gravity and seriousness of Duterte’s utterances, saying that tolerating such acts may lead to anarchy.
Lotoc: “Klaro po doon sa utterances ng Bise Presidente, even before the online press conference on November 23, 2024, the Vice President had already contracted a person to kill the President, Liza Marcos and the former Speaker.”
- Lotoc said that the NBI failed to see any amount of freedom of speech in Duterte’s utterances.
Lotoc: “Freedom of speech protects lawful expression, but it does not protect utterances that satisfy the elements of a criminal offense, like this one.
If we allow the argument that it is within the bounds of freedom of speech, if we allow that to become the norms of our society, then who would prevent anybody from doing the same to anyone?”
- Lotoc said NBI believes that VP Sara committed offenses such as grave threats and inciting sedition based on prima facie evidence.
- Asked by Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo on whether he believed the case was airtight, Lotoc said he believed it was as the Department of Justice (DOJ) certified their referral for preliminary investigation.
- Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros asked Lotoc if there needs to be proof of contracting an assassin to consider utterances a grave threat.
Lotoc: “Insofar as the crime of grave threats is concerned, hindi po ‘yun kailangan.”
Hontiveros also asked whether a threat may still constitute a grave threat even when it is conditional. Lotoc said it is “very much possible,” adding that grave threats may be committed with or without a condition.
He then testified that the NBI applied the “dangerous tendency rule,” saying speech that tends to incite unlawful acts can be restricted.
- Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo asked Lotoc whether there was a real and imminent threat against Vice President Duterte’s own life.
Lotoc said the NBI Cybercrime Division conducted an open-source investigation and found no evidence pointing to such a threat.
- Several senator-judges flagged errors in the NBI’s affidavit of investigation and subpoenas, which Lotoc acknowledged as typographical errors.
- During the defense’s cross examination, Atty. Vinluan pointed out that the DOJ at first found the NBI’s referral against Duterte “insufficient for conduct of preliminary investigation” in its certification dated Feb. 5, 2025.
Lotoc clarified that the DOJ only required them to provide certain attachments like affidavits, noting that the department has issued another certification dated Feb. 14, 2025, stating that the referral was sufficient for the conduct of a preliminary investigation.
- The defense also pointed out that in the Investigation Data Form attached to the NBI’s first affidavit of investigation, the DOJ “received” stamp appeared to have been changed from Feb. 12, 2025 to Jan. 30, 2025.
Lotoc said he could not explain as he was not the one who handled the document.
- Atty. Vinluan asked Lotoc if there was bias in the investigation against Duterte considering that the NBI is under the Office of the President.
Vinluan: “Considering the structure involving the NBI, DOJ, and Office of the President, don’t you think that there was bias against VP Sara?”
Lotoc: “Our investigation is evidence-based. Noong pinag-usapan namin ito, noong in-analyze namin ito, noong nag-follow kami ng mga cases at analysis, we believed and we agreed among ourselves na buo ang ebidensya, na-comply natin ang requirement ng prima facie case with certainty and conviction. Sinubmit namin yan sa DOJ na ang paniwala namin ay kumpleto ang requirement ng kaso.”
- The defense then raised several typographical errors and discrepancies in NBI documents related to the probe into VP Sara’s grave threats case.
- Senator-judge Juan Miguel Zubiri requested to adjourn and continue the trial on Tuesday, July 14, given the late hour.
- Before the Impeachment Court adjourned past 8:00 p.m., Senate President Win Gatchalian suggested issuing a subpoena for NBI Director Melvin Matibag to appear as a witness in the impeachment trial on Monday, July 20.
Presiding Officer Escudero approved Gatchalian’s motion.
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