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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider NBI denies deploying agents to Senate, says no operation to arrest Bato

NBI denies deploying agents to Senate, says no operation to arrest Bato

Published May 13, 2026 09:39 pm
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The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has no operation to serve the arrest warrant against Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, its chief, Melvin Matibag said amid claims that his agents were the ones who fired the first shots at the Senate on Wednesday night, May 13.
“We have not deployed our agents there. There was no instruction to us to arrest Senator Dela Rosa,” said Matibag.
Matibag made the statement after some senators accused the NBI as the one who instigated the tension at the Senate by trying to serve the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to Dela Rosa.
Dela Rosa is facing a case of crimes against humanity after he was named as co-perpetrator in the bloody drug war when he was still the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Matibag confirmed that he received a call from one senator asking him to remove the agents of the NBI at the Senate after shots were fired.
“I told the senator that we have no agents there, and there were really no agents there,” said Matibag.
He added that he even asked the senator to have all the supposed NBI agents inside the Senate premise arrested.
But Matibag said he turned down calls to proceed to the Senate.
“We are already being accused that we were the ones who fired the shots. How can we go there?,” said Matibag, adding that he is also protecting his agents from the possibility of being pinned down once they go there.
Asked to respond to the allegation that NBI agents posed as media, Matibag insisted that the NBI has no operation to get Dela Rosa.
He said the agreement is that there will be an interagency collaboration meeting on how the government would respond to the arrest warrant issued by the ICC.
“(Department of Justice Secretary Fredderick) Vida even gave us instructions that we should not do anything,” said Matibag.

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