After Duterte’s address last night, ordinary citizens understandably took to social media in order to voice out their dissent, and the early hours of April 2, 2020 witnessed the rise in the number of tweets and posts pertaining to the same.

In the morning of April 2, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno posted that he accepted a case from one of the netizens who received a subpoena from the NBI, after having posted online criticism regarding the way the administration was handling the COVID-19 crisis.

The person was invited to "shed light on alleged violation of Art. 154 of the Revised Penal Code - unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances in connection with your publicly posted article concerning an alleged misused (sic) of government funds."

Although NBI has the power to issue subpoena for the appearance of any person for investigation or the production of documents through its officers from ranks of Regional Director to Director, it has no contempt powers or power to punish people for noncompliance.

The functions of NBI are merely investigatory in nature, & it has no judicial or quasi-judicial power. It cannot adjudicate, arbitrate, resolve, settle, or render awards in disputes between contending parties, & has no power to cite people in contempt, much less order arrests.

The Constitution also guarantees free expression and that includes the right to express one’s opinion in social media.