House extends detention of Duterte's chief of staff
The House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability on Monday extended the detention of Zuleika Lopez, Vice President Sara Duterte's chief of staff, for five more days.
During a hearing, ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro made the motion to extend Lopez’s detention from five days to 10 days.
“I would like to consider to move for a reconsideration of our resolution insofar as its limited the period of detention to only five days. I move, Mr. Chair, that the period of detention of Attorney Lopez be 10 days instead of five days,” Castro said.
“We can see in the history, her evasive attitude as well as her lies. She was not harassed and no one barged in on her,” she added.
Lopez was earlier cited in contempt for supposedly not answering questions of solons about the use of confidential funds of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Vice President.
She was sent to a room at the House of Representatives on Thursday but on Saturday, Duterte sent her to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, then to St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City before returning to the Veterans.
The House panel originally wanted Lopez to be brought to the Women's Correcional but Duterte intervened and brought her to Veterans.
In a letter sent to the House panel, she said she could not attend the inquiry since she was suffering from “acute stress disorder”.
The House earlier released a statement denying allegations that it had mistreated Lopez, including not allowing the entry of her lawyer, delaying the medical response to her panick attack, and confiscating her phone. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
