Metro Manila, Philippines – National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag denied that he and his wife – Laguna Rep. Ann Matibag – owned a ₱72-million mansion in the US, and called out media outlets that reported about it without fact checking.
“This is totally fake news so I abhor this kind of behavior. Dapat naman nandito naman yung news network na ‘yan, siguro you have to do something about it or otherwise, I will be the one doing something about it,” Matibag said in a press conference on Tuesday, July 28.
Matibag said it was a case of mistaken identity as the mansion owners had names similar to him and his wife. Citing reports that the property was acquired in 2004, Matibag said he and his wife had not even met at the time.
He said the reports were meant to discredit his testimony in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
The reports gained traction on Wednesday, July 22, when blogger Sass Rogando Sasot posted on her Facebook page that the Matibag couple owned the four-bedroom home in Stevenson Ranch, California.
In the original post, Sasot – who has around 745,000 followers as of this writing – questioned whether the couple had disclosed all their foreign assets in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).
Shortly after Matibag made his Tuesday statement, Sasot retracted her initial post.
“The Melvin Matibag and Anna Marie Matibag owners of 26023 Baldwin Place in California just happened to be coincidentally named after the NBI Director and the Congressman. The Melvin Matibag owner of 26023 Baldwin Place in California is Melvin Benjoso Matibag (while the NBI Director is Melvin Alvarez Matibag); while the Anna Marie Matibag owner is Anna Marie Laman Matibag (while the Congresswoman is Ann Lourdes Garcia Matibag),” the blogger wrote on Tuesday.
“I apologize to NBI Director Melvin Matibag and Congresswoman Ann Matibag for this error. The original post has already been retracted,” she said.
