Sen. Imee Marcos has written to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urging the temporary suspension of three National Bureau of Investigation officials, including its director, following a shooting incident inside the Senate compound.
In her letter, Marcos identified NBI Director Atty. Melvin Matibag, NBI-National Capital Region Chief Atty. Emeterio Dongallo Jr., and NBI-Organized and Transnational Crime Division Chief Atty. Jerome Bomediano as the officials who should be relieved pending an investigation.
The senator cited what she called an “alleged siege and firing of shots by NBI” that she said generated “public alarm and raised grave questions on the security of the Senate and the accountability of law enforcement officers involved.”
The shooting occurred at around 7:50 p.m. on Wednesday inside the GSIS Compound, where the Senate building is located. An NBI driver has been arrested in connection with the incident. Initial findings indicated the suspect fired several rounds inside the building using a firearm of undetermined caliber, sending people in the area into a panic.
Central to Marcos’s push for suspension is what she described as contradictory statements from Matibag in the aftermath of the incident. The NBI director had said no agents were deployed at the Senate when the shots rang out, and that NBI personnel were attending a three-day fellowship event at a hotel during that time.
Marcos dismissed those explanations as mere “claims,” pointing to footage and witness accounts that reportedly placed NBI agents at or near the Senate premises.
“Public concern has been heightened by the inconsistent public statements of Director Matibag, including claims that NBI personnel were merely at Sequoia Hotel for a fellowship, despite reports and videos allegedly showing NBI agents in or within the Senate premises,” she said in the letter.
“Such temporary relief is necessary to preserve the integrity and credibility of the investigation and to remove any appearance of undue influence or impropriety,” she added.
Marcos further argued that the conflicting accounts from the NBI made it imperative that any probe into the incident proceed without interference from the officials under scrutiny.
