Escudero Admonishes NBI Director Matibag Over Remarks to Senator-Judges

Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Tuesday admonished and reminded National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag to refrain from making statements directed towards particular senator-judges in the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. Escudero issued the reminder to Matibag on the 8th day of the trial, immediately after the NBI chief took his oath as witness before the Senate impeachment court. Read: Who is Melvin Matibag? “Director Matibag, the Chair would like to remind and admonish you on behalf of the impeachment court to kindly avoid statements appertaining to individual members of this impeachment court without prejudice to any investigation you are undertaking, you may do so,” Escudero said. “But without need of issuing statements that may impinge upon the independence and the integrity of the court or the individual senator-judges,” he added. LIVE UPDATES: Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial (July 21, 2026) Escudero said that the statements made by Senator-Judges Alan Peter Cayetano and Pia Cayetano on July 15 shall be referred to the Senate as a legislative body, specifically the Rules Committee, for its proper disposition and for the matter to be taken thereat, and not in the impeachment court. On July 15, the Cayetano siblings took offense at the statement of Matibag that he will investigate the alleged anomalies in the bidding and funding of projects for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, claiming that the probe was meant to intimidate members of the Senate impeachment court. Alan Cayetano previously served as chairman of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC), which organized the 2019 SEA Games. A subpoena may be issued against Senator Alan Peter Cayetano over the alleged irregularities in the country's hosting of the Southeast Asian Games in 2019, the NBI said on Monday. Matibag is the last witness presented by the House prosecution panel in Duterte’s trial, testifying on Article IV of the Articles of Impeachment, detailing the supposed grave threat and assassination plot against President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez. —VAL, GMA News