The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has ordered the transfer of Office of the Vice President chief of staff Atty. Zuleika Lopez from the House detention facility to the Women’s Correctional Institute in Mandaluyong City, the OVP has said.
The OVP shared with the media a copy of the order that appeared to be addressed to House Sergeant-at-Arms Napoleon Taas and signed by committee chairman Manila Rep. Joel Chua.
In a press conference via Zoom, an emotional Lopez said that she was being brought to the women’s prison in the middle of the night.
Lopez said that about nine people, including policemen, showed up in her room to serve the transfer order, but she refused to comply.
”I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I need my lawyers now.’ And then [they] said, ‘there is no need for a lawyer because we are just doing our job to serve it,”’ she said.
”I have my rights as a detainee in this facility. Respect that and then I told them to go out.”
”And then, I called the Vice President and after awhile she came,” Lopez said, adding that she tapped Vice President Sara Duterte as her counsel.
Lopez also asked why the committee had issued a transfer order before taking any action on her motion for reconsideration.
”They bring nine, 10 people to serve [the transfer order] in the middle of the night in your pajamas. This is a threat to my life. It’s not harassment,” she said.
”Wala na pong batas sa bansang ito [There is no rule of law in this country].”
GMA News Online is seeking comment from the House leadership and will publish it as soon as it is available.
Lopez was ordered detained at the lower chamber after she was cited in contempt for her supposed “undue interference.”
The detention is until Nov. 25, the date of the committee’s next hearing on the disbursement of confidential funds by the OVP and the Department of Education under Duterte.
Lopez had confirmed to the committee investigating the disbursement of confidential funds by the OVP and the DepEd that it was she who signed the letter to the Commission on Audit, asking the latter not to comply with House subpoena on audit reports on the fund releases.
Earlier, Duterte said she is looking to stay “until after the New Year’s” at the House of Representatives after Lopez was cited in contempt and ordered detained.
In a news conference via Zoom, Duterte said she told Taas when they discussed her security that only Speaker Martin Romualdez wanted her dead, and that he would not do it inside the House complex.
Duterte is staying at the office of her brother Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte after she visited Lopez at the House detention facility.
She asked that she be allowed to stay with Lopez but the committee didn’t allow it. —NB, GMA Integrated News
