Jonathan Frederic De Santos

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

MANILA — The former head of the National Bureau of Investigation&#x27;s Cybercrime Division on Monday told the Senate impeachment court that the agency considers alleged threats that Vice President Sara Duterte made against President Ferdinand  Marcos Jr. and his relatives in November 2024 &quot;serious, real, and actual.&quot;On the second week of the impeachment trial, Atty. Jeremy Lotoc, now NBI regional director for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said during examination by the prosecution that the division considered what Duterte said, how she said it, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/13/nbi-exec-jeremy-lotoc-testifies-before-senate-impeachment-court-1514">&quot;the literal meaning&quot; of her statement, &quot;the nature of the instruction,&quot; and &quot;the relationship between the parties.&quot;</a>He added that as the country&#x27;s second-highest elected official, Duterte was &quot;definitely&quot; capable of making good on the threat to have someone kill Marcos Jr., his wife Liza Araneta Marcos, and his cousin Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez — House speaker at the time.Lotoc told Atty. Amando Ligutan, counsel for the prosecutors, that &quot;the vice president was furious and fuming mad when she uttered those [remarks].&quot;Duterte, whose relationship with Marcos had gone sour — she described it as toxic — said in 2024 that House hearings into her office&#x27;s use of confidential funds were part of <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2024/11/23/vp-duterte-speaker-s-interest-in-presidency-behind-house-probe-into-confidential-funds-1003">Romualdez&#x27;s attempts to derail her potential presidential run in 2028</a>.He also said that the alleged threats went beyond freedom of speech, one of the defenses that Duterte raised in her answer to the Article of Impeachment against her.He said the right does not &quot;<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/13/lotoc-duterte-s-grave-threats-against-marcos-fall-outside-freedom-of-speech-1657">protect utterances that satisfies the elements of a criminal offense like this one</a>.&quot;He added: &quot;If we allow that to be the norms of our society, then who would prevent anybody from doing the same to anyone?”The defense last week said that Duterte&#x27;s statements should be seen in light of a supposed plot against her and her family, allegedly called &quot;Operation Romanov&quot; — for the Russian imperial family killed after the October Revolution of 1917.Defense counsel Mark Vinluan, when asked by Sen. Raffy Tulfo, said they may present a witness to prove the supposed plot exists.&quot;<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/13/duterte-defense-team-to-present-witness-to-prove-operation-romanov-exists-1458">It will depend on the course of the trial</a>,&quot; he said.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/13/still-no-trace-of-sara-duterte-s-alleged-contracted-hitman-nbi-says-2059">RELATED:  Still no trace of Sara Duterte’s alleged contracted hitman, NBI says</a></div><div> </div><div>TYPOS AND MISMATCHED DATES </div>During cross-examination, Vinluan pointed out what he said were consistencies in the investigation data form that the NBI had attached to its complaint and that it had submitted to the Department of Justice.“There is a stamp, Department of Justice received, but it appears that it was initially stamped February 12, 2025, but there is a marking, a manual marking, that converted it to January 30,” Vinluan said.Vinluan said he could not speak on it since only the DOJ could change that date and that he had assigned someone else to file the document.Asked on another supposed inconsistency — NBI Senior Agent John Mark Calilung&#x27;s affidavit dated February 3, or before the DOJ&#x27;s February 5 certification to submit it and other documents — Vinluan said it would be best to ask Calilung about it.He said the affidavit may already have been included in an earlier submission that DOJ prosecutors may have missed. &quot;The date is important, because there was also… an impeachment complaint filed against VP Sara also on February 5, 2025,&quot; Vinluan said during cross-examination, with Vinluan saying he had no information on that.Senator-judges, including Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, had also earlier called attention to errors in documents that the NBI submitted to the DOJ.The Affidavit of Investigation, for example, noted that Duterte “resigned as the secretary of the Department of Justice” when she had been education secretary.“That’s a typo, Your Honor,” Lotoc said in response. Cayetano said the error was not typographical since the &quot;<a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/13/nbi-s-lotoc-grilled-over-typo-errors-in-documents-1853">Department of Justice and Department of Education are two different things</a>.”Vinluan later also pressed Lotoc on typographical errors, particularly a repeated incorrect use of &quot;mama&quot; for &quot;ma&#x27;am&quot; — in the same question — in transcripts of separate interviews with members of the media who were in the November 2024 Zoom call where Duterte made her alleged threats.Lotoc said he did not conduct the interview himself but acknowledged that the NBI sometimes uses templates and that the error may have been copy-pasted between transcriptions since the reporters were asked the same questions.Cross-examination of Lotoc was suspended after Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri moved to adjourn until Tuesday afternoon, saying senator-judges had already been sitting for around six hours by then. — Jonathan de Santos, ABS-CBN News<div> </div><div>Trial resumes at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14.</div>

On the second week of the impeachment trial, Atty. Jeremy Lotoc said during examination by the prosecution that the NBI considered what Duterte said, how she said it, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/13/nbi-exec-jeremy-lotoc-testifies-before-senate-impeachment-court-1514">"the literal meaning" of her statement, "the nature of the instruction," and h</a>er relationship with Marcos.

On the second week of the impeachment trial, Atty. Jeremy Lotoc said during examination by the prosecution that the NBI considered what Duterte said, how she said it, "the literal meaning" of her statement, "the nature of the instruction," and h er relationship with Marcos.

WRAP: Defense notes typos, dates as NBI exec details probe of Duterte’s ‘threats’

News

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Sports

Metro.Style

More

BINI

Sudoku

Word of the Day

Lotto

Horoscope

Nation

WRAP: Defense notes typos, dates as NBI exec details probe of Duterte’s ‘threats’

ABS-CBN News

Published July 13, 2026 10:50 PM PHT

Read More:

Impeachment

Sara Duterte

Amando Ligutan

Mark Vinluan

ABS-CBN Newsletter

Your go-to source for the latest news, entertainment highlights, exclusive interviews, and updates on your favorite Kapamilya stars.

ABS-CBN Newsletter

Your go-to source for the latest news, entertainment highlights, exclusive interviews, and updates on your favorite Kapamilya stars.

Sign Up

I have read and agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

ABS-CBN is the leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, offering quality content across TV, radio, digital, and film. Committed to public service and promoting Filipino values, ABS-CBN continues to inspire and connect audiences worldwide.

Corporate

Investors

Governance

International Distribution

Corporate

Governance

Investors

International Distribution

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

AI Policy

Terms of Service

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2026 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.