Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)

Vice President Sara Duterte questioned on Monday, Nov. 25 the extended detention of her chief-of-staff Zuleika Lopez, as she asserted that the official had no knowledge on the utilization of their office’s confidential funds.

Lopez has been under House custody since she was cited for contempt due  “undue interference” in the ongoing inquiry into the alleged misuse of P612.5 million confidential funds by Duterte.

ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro moved to extend Lopez’s detention during the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing on Monday, Nov. 25.

Castro cited the official’s “evasive attitude” and her supposed lying to increase the detention from five to 10 days.

In a chance interview during a suspension of the hearing, the Vice President called out this reasoning.

“Evasive? You can clearly see she doesn’t know anything,” said Duterte of Lopez.

“She doesn’t know about anything about confidential funds. So saan doon ang (So where are the) evasive answers?” she asked.

Duterte likewise called out the House panel for singling out Lopez when she wrote a letter to the Commission on Audit (COA) and requested the agency to disregard a subpoena for audit reports on the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential expenses in 2022 and 2023.

“Bakit niyo ipe-penalize ang tao para sa isang posisyon ng opisina? Saan ang hustisya dito?” the Vice President asked.

(Why would you penalize the person for the position of an office? Where is the justice here?)

“Mali na nga ‘yung una mong detention, mali pa ‘yung sumunod mo na order,” she added.

(Your first detention was already wrong, your next order was just as wrong.)