Day 9 of Sara Duterte Impeachment trial: The prosecution rests its threat case on the NBI’s word

Late Wednesday, pressed on why the NBI never went after a Davao Death Squad witness directly, Melvin Matibag reached for a lawyer’s line and told the court the question had already been asked and answered. The chamber laughed. An amused Chiz Escudero, the impeachment court’s presiding officer, reminded the NBI director that the rulings belong to the bench, then granted the objection anyway, agreeing Matibag had a point.

That exchange is a fair picture of Day 9. NBI Director Melvin Matibag came across as composed and sure of his agency’s findings. The findings themselves are not finished.

Wednesday was the last stretch of Article IV, the charge covering the grave threats, the alleged assassination plot and inciting to sedition tied to Duterte’s November 23, 2024 online press conference against President Marcos, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez. Matibag was the prosecution’s final witness for this article. Defense counsel Mark Vinluan finished cross-examining him in the early afternoon, lead prosecutor Rep. Jinky Luistro waived redirect, and the House panel closed its threat case. By the court’s own count, the prosecution used six of its 11 allotted days for Article IV, leaving the trial two days ahead of schedule.

A reminder of where this sits: this is Duterte’s second impeachment. Her camp is still arguing that the July 2025 Supreme Court ruling, which voided the earlier articles, should reach this trial too. The court has not agreed.

What the cross-examination actually did

Vinluan did not dispute the recorded statements. He went after the messenger. He put up three 2024 Daily Tribune columns Matibag wrote before joining the NBI, all calling Duterte a “bratinella,” and pointed out that Matibag’s wife, Laguna 1st District Rep. Ann Matibag, endorsed the impeachment. Matibag answered that the columns were his opinion as a writer, that the term came from Rodrigo Duterte, and that his wife’s work as a legislator is separate from his own.

The other fight was over an affidavit by self-confessed Davao Death Squad member Arturo Lascanas, roughly 100 pages, which the defense objected to as unsigned and unnotarized hearsay. Escudero let it in only to show what the NBI looked at, not as proof of the allegations, a limit he restated several times before cutting the reading short.

Then came the gap the defense wanted on record. Under questioning, Matibag confirmed the NBI has not identified the alleged hitman. The bureau has narrowed its list to about 20 persons of interest and believes it can name the individual in three to six months. The state calls the threat serious, active and continuing. It also cannot yet say who was on the other end of it.

Five things that happened on Day 9

• The prosecution closed Article IV. Matibag was the panel’s last witness on the grave-threats charge, after it dropped others including OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez to shorten the calendar. Lead prosecutor Rep. Jinky Luistro waived redirect, ending Matibag’s time on the stand.
• The hitman hunt is unfinished. The NBI narrowed its probe to around 20 persons of interest and set a three-to-six-month window to identify the alleged assassin, tracing back to a special task force it created on April 16, 2026.
• The court kept the Lascanas affidavit at arm’s length. Escudero admitted it as investigative background only, not as proof, and repeated that restriction on the record.
• A survey entered the room. Pulse Asia’s July 22 release put Duterte at 49% for 2028, ahead of Robredo’s 26%. The defense had earlier waved a 57% SWS trust rating to argue no public injury. Matibag’s answer was that popularity does not shield an official from accountability.
• The money trail is next. The bank, tax and AMLC records of Duterte and husband Manases Carpio, subpoenaed July 20, move the trial toward Article I (P612.5 million in confidential funds) and Article II (unexplained wealth). On Day 9, senator-judges Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Imee Marcos and Camille Villar filed manifestations questioning that subpoena. The trial resumes July 29.

Who benefits, who pays

The prosecution now has its national-security narrative in the record, anchored by the executive branch’s own investigators. The defense has planted its counter-story: an investigator who once mocked the respondent in print, married to someone who signed the complaint, running a probe that has not produced the person at the center of the alleged plot. Both of those are now the senator-judges’ problem to weigh.

For the public, the bigger shift is the pivot from words to money. Article IV rested on statements everyone has already heard. The financial articles will rest on documents: the bank records and the liquidation papers behind the confidential funds. That is a harder kind of evidence to clip into a meme, and a harder kind to answer.

Watch the record, not the reel

Day 9 came in two versions. One was the clip reel, the laugh lines and reaction edits that move through your feed on their own, right down to an actor quietly unfollowing the Vice President to get out of the crossfire. The other was the record: a hitman hunt still narrowed only to about 20 names, and a 100-page affidavit the court agreed to read only as background.

The clip reel will find you. The record you have to go looking for, on the Senate’s livestream and in the documents, starting with the confidential-funds witnesses the court calls on July 29. That is the part worth your time.