PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed Melvin Matibag as the new head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Malacañang announced on Thursday.
Matibag will replace Lito Magno, who was named acting NBI chief after Jaime Santiago resigned last year.
In a press briefing, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro did not offer a reason for the leadership change, or say when Matibag would take office.
“That is the only thing that I have been given. There will be a new NBI director in the person of attorney Melvin Matibag,” Castro said.
“The president saw that attorney Melvin Matibag can be trusted and can work for the government,” she added.
Matibag served as Cabinet secretary of former president Rodrigo Duterte and secretary-general of the Partido ng Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
He resigned from Duterte’s PDP-Laban in October 2023.
Matibag also served as general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority and as president and chief executive officer of the National Transmission Corp.
Meanwhile, the Palace denied that Ariel Nepomuceno would be replaced as the commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.
“The circulating claim that Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno is being replaced is not true,” Castro said, adding that the document being shared online would be turned over to the NBI for investigation to determine the source of the “fake information.” Nepomuceno was sworn in as Customs chief on June 30, 2025.
So far, Castro said there was no update if the president would appoint a new Environment secretary after the Commission on Appointments repeatedly bypassed Raphael Lotilla’s appointment as the agency’s chief.