To kill the president

By Herbert Vego

NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag has narrowed his list of persons of interest behind Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged plot to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez to 20 individuals.

On the ninth day of Duterte’s impeachment trial on July 22 in the Senate, Matibag said, “Our investigation reveals that there are indeed existing leads. To put it in context — without dropping names — we started with a long list of names and have since narrowed it down.”

While refusing to name names, he hinted that somebody from the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG) is one of them.

The VPSPG is made up of “more than 300 men,” to quote Matibag.

The VPSPG was created only in June 2022, when Vice President Sara Duterte took office. Its members are personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Her predecessor, Vice President Leni Robredo, was not so “secure.” According to her former spokesperson, Barry Gutierrez, she had “a small protective unit.”

“We have leads already. We have some personalities who are under surveillance, and we are already tailing them. We are zeroing in on several individuals already,” Matibag added.

Well, it is already a “given” that, as VP Sara herself said in a televised news conference, she had contracted an assassin to kill the three.

Could the prosecution lawyers not have asked the vice president herself whom she had contacted?

They could not because Senate rules allow the impeached official to defend herself through legal counsel.

Earlier, the NBI had subpoenaed Duterte twice in relation to the investigation, but she did not show up, citing “office matters.”

Since Inday Sara could not take back her words about the contracted assassin, her lawyers insisted on interpreting her “kill remark” not as a proactive threat but as a justified response to active death threats targeting her own family.

Unbelievable. If that were so, she herself could have said so and reported it to the NBI.

The NBI director could go no further than ask the senator-judges to wait for the testimony of another witness.

He is Ramil Madriaga, a detained alleged leader of a kidnapping syndicate and a self-confessed former aide to the Dutertes.

He organized the Inday Sara Duterte Is My President (ISIP) movement, which campaigned for Sara Duterte’s candidacy for vice president as the running mate of presidential candidate Marcos in 2022.

The “Is My President” in that acronym served as the group’s reminder that its final move was to install her as president by having her succeed the president by hook or by crook.

It was Madriaga who told the House Committee on Justice on April 14 that, during the Duterte administration, he had served as a financial “dummy” in the movement of large sums of money through bank accounts opened under his name by people close to the former president.

Ano’ng say mo, Mary Grace Piattos?

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AMENDED MAGNA CARTA FOR ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS

MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) would like to remind its electricity consumers in Iloilo City that the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers was amended by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) through Resolution No. 03, Series of 2026, which took effect on Feb. 21, 2026. To sum it up:

New-connection bill deposits are capped at one month’s estimated billing, based on load schedules, and are payable in three equal monthly installments.

Distribution utilities (DUs), such as local providers, are given the discretion to waive deposits or accept alternative guarantees.

Consumers with a 100% lifeline discount under Republic Act No. 11552 are fully exempt from bill deposits.

DUs must explicitly display the total deposits held and accrued interest on monthly billing statements.

Applicants who lack formal property titles may apply for electric service using a barangay clearance or certification under specified conditions.

Customers with a clean record of paying monthly bills on or before the due date for two consecutive years, or 24 months, qualify for an automatic refund of their deposit plus accrued interest.

The distribution utility must automatically credit these refunds directly to the customer’s monthly electric bills until they are fully settled.

You can track further updates or read official announcements on the Energy Regulatory Commission’s Facebook page or check local implementation details from MORE Power Iloilo.