NBI suspects Sara's alleged hitman from her own security detail

MANILA, Philippines — The hired assassin that Vice President Sara Duterte claimed to have contracted against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. may be from within her own security group, the National Bureau of Investigation said.

NBI Director Melvin Matibag confirmed Wednesday, April 29 at the House justice panel's impeachment hearing that the bureau is investigating members of the Vice President's Security Protection Group (VPSPG), which includes active military personnel, as it tries to identify who Duterte contracted for her plans.

It's a "possibility" that the hitman is a member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Matibag said when asked yesterday by a lawmaker. 

"Because the members of the vice presidential security and protection group, there are active members of the military there," Matibag said in Filipino.

"Some have been identified as still being in the military service, while many others are no longer in the service," he added.

The NBI chief confirmed the bureau is still tracking down several individuals but has yet to pinpoint the specific hitman Duterte claimed to have spoken to.

"We have some personalities na sinusundan po namin," he said, adding: "In general, we are looking at ... the close associates of the vice president."

The NBI also assured lawmakers the video of Duterte making the threat had been verified as authentic. "Inensure natin na hindi siya edited or spliced or AI edited," the bureau told the committee.

The threat that triggered it all

The remarks in question were made in the early hours of Nov. 23, 2024, when Duterte held a midnight Zoom press conference originally called for her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez. 

Lopez had been detained at the House of Representatives after being cited in contempt for evasive answers during a probe into the alleged misuse of confidential funds at the Office of the Vice President.

Enraged by a House order to transfer Lopez to a women's prison in Mandaluyong, a visibly furious Duterte took over the livestream and unleashed an expletive-laden tirade against Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez. It was here that she said she contracted someone to kill all three should anything happen to her. She repeated twice that she was not joking.

More than a year later, that outburst now forms one of the bases of the impeachment complaints against the vice president. 

The House justice committee yesterday voted unanimously, with all 53 members present, to find probable cause to impeach Duterte on two complaints. 

The panel will now draft articles of impeachment for transmittal to the plenary, where a one-third vote would make Duterte the first official in Philippine history to be impeached twice. 

The impeachment case would then proceed to the Senate for trial, the venue Duterte's defense team has called the only "proper forum" to answer the allegations against her. 

Her lawyers have argued that the House committee hearings lack constitutional jurisdiction. The vice president skipped all four hearings.