An open investigation with no named suspect became the focus of Senator-Judge Bam Aquino’s questioning on Monday, as the National Bureau of Investigation acknowledged it never located the individual Vice President Sara Duterte allegedly enlisted to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Testifying before the Senate Impeachment Court was Jeremy Lotoc, regional director of the NBI in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. He appeared as the House prosecution’s second witness on Article IV, which centers on the threat the Vice President is accused of making against the President.
Lotoc’s involvement traces back to 2024, when he served as chief of the NBI cybercrime division and directed the probe into remarks Duterte delivered online. During a virtual press briefing on November 23, 2026, she stated that she had contracted someone “to kill” the President, First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and then House Speaker Martin Romualdez should any harm come to her.
Aquino zeroed in on whether investigators had done enough to trace the supposed contractor. “My question is focused on the person who was spoken to or allegedly contracted by Vice President Sara Duterte to kill the President, First Lady, and former Speaker. Did you continue the investigation to find this person?” he asked.
The bureau came up empty on that front. Lotoc conceded that agents could neither validate nor confirm any details about the purported hitman, even after subpoenas went out to media figures who had watched the online press conference unfold.
For Aquino, that gap mattered. He pointed out that the broadcast itself captured the Vice President’s words plainly, yet the absence of an identified hitman left the alleged plot unverified. “So what you mean to say is that, as the NBI, you were not able to find this person. But you based your assessment on the statement because it was explicitly stated by the Vice President herself,” he said.
Lotoc responded that the bureau weighed the statements with complete seriousness, citing the intense anger and profanity that marked the Vice President’s delivery.
Monday marked the fourth day of the impeachment proceedings against Duterte. The bureau’s case, by Lotoc’s account, has not been closed and continues to await usable information from the public or from those connected to the matter.
