Pro-Duterte blogger Sass Rogando Sasot has retracted a July 22, 2026 social media post that tied National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag and his wife, Laguna 1st District Representative Ann Matibag, to a California home, admitting the property belongs to a different couple who share the officials’ names.
In a correction posted July 28, 2026, Sasot said the four-bedroom house at 26023 Baldwin Place in Stevenson Ranch, California — valued at roughly $1.16 million and listed on the real estate marketplace Homes.com — is owned by a couple listed as “Melvin Matibag and Anna Marie Matibag.” Her original post had presented the listing as belonging to the NBI director and the congresswoman, raising what it called “urgent questions” about whether the couple fully disclosed their U.S. assets in their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.
Sasot said cross-verification against other U.S. public records showed the owners were not the two officials. The blogger identified the property’s owner as Melvin Benjoso Matibag, distinct from NBI Director Melvin Alvarez Matibag, and the co-owner as Anna Marie Laman Matibag, whom she distinguished from the congresswoman. The two homeowners, Sasot wrote, “just happened to be coincidentally named after” the public officials.
“I apologize to NBI Director Melvin Matibag and Congresswoman Ann Matibag for this error,” Sasot wrote, adding that the original post had already been retracted.
Public records list the NBI director’s full name as Melvin Alvarez Matibag, who assumed the bureau’s top post in April 2026 after previously serving as a Duterte-era cabinet secretary and as a PDP-Laban faction leader. His wife’s registered name is Maria Rene Ann Lourdes Garcia Matibag, who has represented Laguna’s 1st district since 2022.
The retraction lands as the Matibag couple figures prominently in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. The NBI director testified as a prosecution witness, while his wife was among the House members who endorsed the Articles of Impeachment — a spousal link the defense raised on cross-examination and that Matibag has maintained does not compromise his independence as bureau chief.
Sasot, a longtime Duterte supporter now based in Beijing, has drawn cyber libel complaints over her online commentary in recent months.
