The House prosecution panel officially launched its presentation of evidence on Tuesday by calling a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) cybercrime expert to the stand.
The witness was tasked with verifying digital video footage containing alleged death threats made by Vice President Sara Duterte against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Under direct examination by prosecutor Atty. Amando Virgil Ligutan, NBI Senior Agent John Mark Calilung, the lead investigator on the case, detailed his rigorous forensic process for handling the digital files.
“It means that I viewed, identified, preserved, collected, and authenticated digital evidence in the course of the investigation,” Calilung explained.
The Livestream Evidence
The cornerstone of the prosecution’s evidence is a recording of a November 23, 2024, online press conference broadcasted on the social media page of former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.
At the time of the livestream, the Vice President was speaking outside the House of Representatives detention facility, where her chief-of-staff, Atty. Zuleika Lopez, had been detained following a contempt order tied to a congressional inquiry into the Office of the Vice President’s confidential funds.
Calilung outlined the stringent measures taken to secure and verify the footage:
“After screen recording, there’s an output video. I compared the output video with the November 23, 2024 video and ensured that the contents are identical.”
“After ensuring that the contents are identical, I generated a hash value calculation on the video to ensure that the video won’t be tampered until presented in court.”
The Critical Excerpt
Following the impeachment court’s formal admission of the authenticated file, prosecutors played the pivotal segment featuring the Vice President’s controversial remarks:
“Huwag kang mag-alala, ma’am, sa security ko, kasi may kinausap na ako na tao. Sinabi ko sa kanya, kapag pinatay ako, patayin mo si BBM, si Liza Araneta, at si Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke. Nagbilin na ako, ma’am, ’pag namatay ako, sabi ko, huwag ka tumigil, ha, hanggang ‘di mo mapatay sila. And then he said yes.”
Further Digital Investigations
To back up their findings, Calilung confirmed that the NBI executed a sworn Affidavit of Authentication of Digital Evidence and formally petitioned Meta, Facebook’s parent company, to preserve the original livestream data.
Furthermore, the investigator revealed that an open-source deep dive into Duterte’s prior public statements uncovered an October 18, 2024, press conference.
During this earlier briefing, the Vice President allegedly threatened to exhume the remains of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and throw them into the West Philippine Sea.
This expert testimony lays the foundational groundwork for the prosecution’s fourth Article of Impeachment, setting the stage for future witness testimonies and documentary evidence.