Agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested five people, including Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) founder Roberto Mabanta for alleged robbery and extortion related to cybercrime laws.
The NBI reported that Mabanta’s arrest happened on the afternoon of May 5, 2026 at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City. The other four individuals arrested were Ericson James Pacaba, John Alexander Vasquez Gomez, Jardine Christian Requio Serrano, and Franco Jose Gallardo.
The arrest of the suspects stemmed from the complaint filed by former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. He told the NBI that Mabanta and his team allegedly threatened him by claiming the suspects will publish a video online linking him to corruption.
He added that Mabanta allegedly demanded a sum of P300 million in exchange for not publishing the video online, and the payment must be done in four tranches of P75 million.
Members of the agency’s Organized and Transnational Crime Division (NBI-OTCD) were deployed to conduct an entrapment operation. They went to the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City, posing as representatives of Romualdez, to pay the first P75 million to Mabanta but were instructed by the latter to deliver the money to a certain “Jimmy,” later identified as Serrano, at the Valle Verde Country Club in Pasig City.
Serrano and Gallardo received the cash and brought it to a function room inside the club, where Mabanta, Pacaba, and Gomez were waiting, and eventually arrested by the NBI agents.
NBI Director Atty. Melvin Matibag said Mabanta and his cohorts are under their custody for booking, documentation, and inquest proceedings, including the entrapment money and mobile phones the suspects allegedly used in coordinating the transaction.