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Delon Porcalla - The Philippine Star
April 27, 2026 | 12:00am
Vice President Sara Duterte demonstrates herself supposedly chopping President Marcos’ head, at a press conference on October 18, 2024.
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s threat to have President Marcos assassinated was neither a “metaphor nor a hyperbole,” as she indeed hired an assassin for that purpose, the chief of the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed over the weekend.
Melvin Matibag, NBI director, told journalists covering the weekly news forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City that while they have established this during their investigation, they are now in the process of identifying the assassin tasked to carry this out.
“So, we know that she really talked to someone, but we want to find out who is that person,” Matibag said.
“What we know – and this is based on our own findings – that (kill threat in November 2024) was something (they would like to appear) … as a spur of the moment, that it was just metaphor or hyperbole. But that was planned, actually,” the NBI chief said.
Matibag said the NBI is working to establish the identity of the person Duterte allegedly spoke with and to determine whether the threat progressed beyond words.
At a press conference in November 2024, in the wee hours of the morning, Duterte said she had spoken to someone to kill the President, First Lady Liza Marcos, and former speaker Martin Romualdez if anything happened to her.
She said it was not a joke, repeating it twice, when her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez was jailed.
The incident has since become one of the most serious charges cited in the two impeachment complaints filed against her, alongside allegations involving her unexplained wealth and misuse of confidential funds.
The House justice committee has found the complaints sufficient in form, substance and grounds, and is now conducting hearings to determine whether probable cause exists to elevate the case to the Senate.
The panel is set to take up the alleged threat in its next hearing on April 29, where Matibag and other NBI officials are expected to testify as resource persons.
