MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte said on Saturday, November 23, that her chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, expressed her desire to quit her position after being “deeply traumatized” in the detention facility at the House of Representatives.
“She told me, ‘I want to resign. I want to resign from the Office of the Vice President’ and I told her okay. She told me, ‘I want to go home to my mother.’ ‘Pag natapos, ‘yung paghahanap sa akin (When they stop looking for me in the hearings), I will resign and I will go home to my mother,'” Duterte told reporters in a chance interview at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, where Lopez is currently confined.
“She is resigning. Tatapusin niya lang ang hearings (She will just finish the hearings),” she added.
Lopez had been detained at the House detention facility since Wednesday night after being cited in contempt due to her evasive answers to lawmakers probing the Vice President’s alleged misuse of funds at the OVP and the Department of Education, when she served as DepEd chief.
On Friday night, the House committee on good government had ordered the transfer of Lopez to the Women’s Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong City, which she refused to comply with. This caused Lopez to have a panic attack, prompting her hospitalization. She was initially brought to Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) early on Saturday but was transferred to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.
Manila 3rd district Representative Joel Chua, committee chairman, said “serious security concerns” prompted the transfer order because the Vice President didn’t want to leave the House premises.
At noon on Saturday, Lopez was brought back to VMMC, a government facility, after her condition stabilized.
On Sunday, Duterte said Lopez has not “settled down,” saying that “she woke up several times in the night, had three dreams of someone smothering her with a pillow.”
“She allowed me to go see my children so as long as Senator Bong Go will replace me and that I come back in the evening,” she added. Duterte had been accompanying Lopez in the VMMC.
Pressed about Lopez’s resignation, Duterte said it has not been finalized yet.
“Wala naman siya sinabi pa. Kahapon lang ‘yan na-discuss. Sinabi niya na gusto niya tapusin niya ‘yung part niya sa hearings tanong na lahat ng tanungin para ma-discharge na siya and makauwi na siya and ‘yun nga kasi hindi pa sya makauwi ngayon. Nagdecide mother niya na pumunta dito sa manila,” Duterte told reporters.
(She didn’t say anything more. It was only discussed yesterday. She said he wants to finish her part in the hearings, answer all the questions so she can be discharged and go home. Because she still can’t go home now, her mother decided to come here to Manila.)
The contempt order against Lopez issued by the House will be lifted on Monday, November 25, the resumption of the House probe.
“Hanggang bukas lang talaga yung contempt ni Atty. Lopez. Kung di na magtatanong yung committee members, makakauwi naman siya (Atty. Lopez’s contempt will only last until tomorrow. If the committee members don’t ask any more questions, he can go home),” said House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro on Sunday. Castro was the one who moved for Lopez’s contempt citation, which her colleagues did not object to. – Rappler.com
