The House Prosecution Panel officially requested for the Senate impeachment court to issue subpoenas for the appearance of executives from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte.

The officials sought to appear were OVP Chief of Staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez and NBI Director Atty. Melvin Matibag, both of whom were previously called in separate hearings at the House of Representatives.

Lopez was one of the officials from Duterte’s office that was called on by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability during its probe into the alleged misuse of confidential funds.

She was previously detained at the House detention facility after she was found to have conducted undue interference to the proceedings of the House during a hearing of 20 November 2024 and was subsequently cited in contempt.

The basis of the decision was made based on Lopez’s decision to write a letter to the Commission on Audit (CoA), requesting for the auditing body to refuse complying with the subpoena of the House panel to submit documents pertaining to its audit of the 2022 and 2023 confidential funds.

The official was subsequently released on 30 November based on an order of the committee.

She was invited to the trial proper as she would be offering testimonies concerning the circumstances regarding the alleged threats of the Vice President towards high ranking public officials and further substantiate her public statements based on firsthand information.

As for Matibag, he recently appeared before the House Committee on Justice during its hearings into the impeachment complaints against the Vice President related one of the allegations that was included to substantiate the complainants' plea for Duterte’s impeachment.

Similar to his role in the said hearing, the NBI Director was said to be brought to the court to authenticate its evidence and records it obtained during its investigation concerning the verbal threats.

It was also previously mentioned by the prosecutors that Matibag would assist the prosecution, affirming that the threats were not mere hyperbole and were treated as an actual security threat under different government agencies.

Lopez and Matibag were asked to be present for the 13, 14, and 15 July trial dates.