The leadership dispute inside the Senate has now spilled into a standoff over which blue ribbon committee can legitimately summon a sitting bureau chief.
National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag said he is prepared to face Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and answer everything the lawmaker wants to ask, but only at the hearing scheduled for Monday under the panel he recognizes as the rightful one.
“Alan Peter Cayetano is still a member of the Senate. Kung gusto niya akong makaharap at tanungin, mag-attend siya sa hearing sa Lunes. Nandoon ako,” Matibag said during a roundtable with Inquirer editors and staff on Friday. “You can ask every question that you have for me, even my favorite color,” he added.
The bureau director said the invitation he is honoring came from the committee now chaired by Senator Erwin Tulfo, whom he described as the proper authority following the June 3 reorganization. On that date, 12 senators declared a quorum and installed Senator Win Gatchalian as Senate President Pro Tempore. Tulfo, who took over the blue ribbon committee from Senator Pia Cayetano, issued a memo rescheduling the hearing from June 4 to June 8.
Matibag was firm in rejecting the rival panel’s authority. Speaking as a lawyer, he told the Inquirer that the recognized acting Senate President is Gatchalian and that the committee is technically led by Tulfo rather than Pia Cayetano. He went further, calling the Cayetano-led committee “not legitimate” and saying he would stay away if summoned by that group. “They’re not the legitimate Blue Ribbon Committee, so I will not be appearing,” he said, adding that a valid invitation from the proper committee would secure his attendance.
The exchange traces back to Thursday, when Cayetano pressed Matibag to come before their committee and lay out the evidence behind the NBI’s information that 18 alleged former Marines were each offered P5 million to act as testifying “bagmen” for former congressman Elizaldy Co. Cayetano, noting that the NBI director had previously shown up at the Senate without being asked, told him he was “free to come” and said, “I invite you to do so now.”
Matibag brushed the offer aside, comparing it to a casual invitation to a “birthday party.” He argued that such an approach has no place in legal proceedings. “Senator Alan’s statement may sound good if he were in a barbershop or a noodle house, but when we’re talking about legal matters, that simply won’t do,” he said.
The Cayetano bloc, absent from the chamber for three days, still convened Thursday and pushed through with the session. Its members insist the quorum of 12 falls short, arguing that at least 13 senators are required under the Constitution and Senate rules.
