Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief-of-staff is now back at work at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) after previously attempting to resign following her detention at the House of Representatives in November last year.
(From right) Vice President Sara Duterte and OVP Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez (Photos from the House of Representatives)
OVP Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez was seen in the official photos posted in the OVP’s Facebook page when Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials visited the headquarters for a briefing about the upcoming May midterm polls.
It was the first time Lopez, a close-in aide of the Vice President, was seen since getting detained and hospitalized in November.
During a press conference on Friday, Feb. 7, Duterte disclosed that her chief-of-staff took an indefinite leave after she was discharged from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) and was supposed to be on leave for two months starting January this year.
“And then after a week, bumalik siya noong January, after a week bumalik siya dito, and then she said, ‘Hindi ako mag le-leave.’ So sabi ko, ‘Okay, welcome back’ (she returned last January, after a week she returned here, and then she said, ‘I will not take a leave anymore.’ So, I said, ‘Okay, welcome back’),” she shared.
To recall, the Vice President herself stated previously that Lopez will resign after the congressional hearings.
“So, yes, on that point, nanalo si Martin Romualdez (Martin Romualdez won). She’s resigning. Tatapusin nya lang ‘yung hearings (She’ll just finish the hearings),” she earlier said.
According to the Vice President, Lopez was hospitalized in Davao City after being discharged from the VMMC and was asked by her doctors to come back this February for further tests.
She was supposed to be on leave for two months starting January, but then later on decided to continue working at the OVP.
Lopez was previously ordered detained by the House good government committee after admitting that she asked the Commission on Audit (COA) not to heed a subpoena on audit reports on the OVP’s liquidation documents regarding its confidential funds.
The committee looked into the Vice President’s alleged misuse of public funds, which were one of the items in the Articles of Impeachment used by the lower chamber to oust her.