Two months after being released from detention by the House of Representatives, Atty. Zuleika Lopez, a longtime aide of Vice President Sara Duterte, was spotted back in the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
Based on the photos shared by the OVP during its flag ceremony on Monday, February 3, Lopez was seen wearing an OVP uniform and ID, all smiles beside Duterte and other OVP personnel.
That day, the OVP also welcomed Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco to talk about the guidelines and the voting process for the May 12 midterm elections. New officers of the OVP Employees’ Association also took oath before Duterte.
The poll body also posted photos of the event on its social media account.
GMA News Online is seeking confirmation from Duterte’s office if Lopez is officially back on duty. Lopez has been given the position Undersecretary and chief of staff of the OVP.
In November 2024, Duterte said that Lopez had expressed her intent to resign from her post following a dramatic turn of events when she was cited in contempt by a House panel for her supposed “undue interference” in the investigation into the budget use and confidential funds of the OVP and the Department of Education during Duterte’s stint as secretary.
Lopez back then was confined at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center for days after she fell ill following the panel’s decision to remove her from the House detention facility and transfer her to the Correctional Institution for Women in the middle of the night.
Her detention was supposed to expire on November 25, but the House extended it until November 30.
Lopez had denied knowledge of how the OVP utilizes its confidential funds. She said her role in the OVP is only to oversee the institutionalization and implementation of all the socioeconomic projects of the office. —AOL, GMA Integrated News
