MANILA, Philippines — National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag on Wednesday said the alleged betrayal of public trust was consummated when Vice President Sara Duterte publicly admitted to contracting an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
During the ninth day of Duterte's impeachment trial, Matibag said that the vice president's public admission that she hired an assassin is itself the betrayal.
Matibag issued the statement after Defense counsel Mark Vinluan asked whether the NBI planned to file another impeachment case against Duterte after completing its investigation.
In response, the NBI chief said they don't need to investigate the betrayal of public trust even if they pinpoint the person Duterte allegedly contracted.
"The betrayal of public trust as the issue in the impeachment court, we don’t need to investigate even if we pinpointed the person contracted. The point is that the betrayal of public trust was already consummated when she publicly admitted—there’s already an admission—that she contracted a killer, or an assassin, to kill the president. And that itself is already an admission," Matibag said.
"The oath of Office of the [Vice] President, she will execute the law and do justice to every man. If you plan to kill and actually go through with it, that is not justice to every man. That is not execute the law, what she want to do there is execute the president," he added.
The defense sought to strike Matibag's statement from the record, but Presiding Officer Francis Escudero denied the motion.
