Former National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago criticized the defense panel’s handling of its cross-examination of NBI Director Melvin Matibag in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, saying the questioning circled back to matters the witness had already addressed.
Speaking to DZRH News on July 22, 2026, Santiago said defense counsel Mark Vinluan repeatedly pressed Matibag on documents the current NBI chief never signed, including papers issued before he took over the bureau. Matibag assumed the directorship on February 20, 2026, and told the impeachment court he had no personal involvement in the agency’s earlier work on the case.
Santiago, a retired Manila regional trial court judge who led the NBI from June 2024 until his resignation in October 2025, framed his objection in the language of the bench. He said that if he were still hearing cases, that manner of cross-examination would have drawn a gavel to the head. He acknowledged that questioning witnesses is a lawyer’s job, but urged the defense to apply what he called a measure of common sense.
The remarks followed two days of testimony in which Vinluan built his cross-examination around Matibag’s distance from the original investigation. The defense laid out the NBI director’s lack of personal knowledge through a series of questions, beginning with the ten subpoenas issued to people who attended Duterte’s 2024 press conference, where she allegedly threatened President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Vinluan noted that no subpoena was issued against Duterte after Matibag took office, while two were issued during Santiago’s own tenure.
The defense also raised the fact that Matibag’s wife, Laguna 1st District Representative Ann Matibag, is among the lawmakers who endorsed the articles of impeachment, and presented one of his opinion columns depicting the Vice President unfavorably. Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, a solon-prosecutor, called the line of questioning irrelevant to testing the witness’s credibility. Defense spokesperson Michael Poa said the panel meant no offense and that cross-examination requires testing both credibility and bias.
Matibag is the prosecution’s final witness on Article IV of the articles of impeachment, which covers the alleged grave threats and inciting to sedition charges. Lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said the panel found a redirect examination unnecessary. The impeachment court takes up the confidential funds article on July 29.
