The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has asserted that the contentious transfer of Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief of staff Zuleika Lopez from the House of Representatives to the Women’s Correctional Facility was a collegial decision prompted by Duterte’s defiance to leave Batasan Complex in violation of protocols.

Panel chairperson Joel Chua denied in an interview on Sunday that Speaker Martin Romualdez gave his imprimatur to the call amid speculations that the ongoing investigation into the use of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education (DepEd) stems from the House chief’s so-called ambitious presidential plan in 2028.

According to Chua, the panel held a closed-door-session, where lawmakers reached a consensus to order the transfer of Lopez to the detention facility in Mandaluyong City. The decision, he emphasized, was also to prevent putting the VP’s security in jeopardy following reports of purported mobilization outside the Batasan compound.

“It was the decision of the committee…There was no instruction [from the Speaker],” Chua said. “The Vice President wanted to sleep in the House again, and she wanted to go jogging in the vicinity [of the complex]…We were alarmed by [her] security.

“First of all, our security personnel are limited and if our Vice President stayed there overnight again, she will be guarded, the compound will be guarded [and] it might even create a security problem,” the chairman narrated. 

Duterte was accused of breaching the House’s rules and protocols when she and her entourage “stayed locked” overnight in the room of his brother, Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, after vising Lopez late Thursday. House Sergeant-at-Arms Napoleon Taas told reporters that they permitted the VP to stay beyond the visiting hour deadline of 5 p. m., considering her busy schedule. 

Duterte remained defiant and joined Lopez in the House’s detention facility until early Saturday, prompting the committee to order the latter’s transfer to the women’s prison. 

According to Taas, Duterte’s continued presence within the House complex “has disrupted the normal operations of the 19th Congress to the point of putting in jeopardy the safety of House members and the security of our facilities.“

Lopez has been detained since Wednesday after being cited in contempt for committing “undue interference” when she asked the Commission on Audit (CoA) to withhold compliance with a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Appropriations to review the utilization of P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds that Duterte’s office received in 2022 and 2023.

Lopez admitted to writing a letter to the CoA pending their response to the audit observation memorandum, but contended that it was never her intention to undermine Congress’ power of the purse or its oversight function. She claimed Duterte was aware of the letter. 

The transfer of Lopez to the women’s correctional, however, was unsuccessful, after she collapsed and vomited. She was initially brought to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center and later transferred to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, before the Panel ordered her to return to the VMMC. 

Duterte stayed with Lopez throughout the day and only left her on Sunday to visit her children in the meantime. 

Nevertheless, Chua said they expected Lopez to attend today’s probe, despite her reported resignation as OVP-Undersecretary. 

In addition, he pointed out that “the committee will not accept” Duterte, who is a lawyer by profession, to stand as a legal counsel of Lopez in the proceedings.

“It is clear in the Constitution that the President, Vice President and members of the Cabinet are not allowed to practice their profession,” said Chua, who is also a lawyer.

“We granted all their requests including Ma'am Zuleika's visit to the doctor…Of course, our vice president is the second highest leader of our country and we give all courtesy. I just hope that she will extend that courtesy reciprocally to Congress,” he stressed.

The House probe centers on the alleged irregularities in the use of P612.5 million in confidential funds, allocated to the OVP (P500 million) and the DepEd (P112.5 million) in 2022 and 2023 during Duterte’s stint as its secretary.

The CoA flagged a significant portion of the secret and even disallowed P73.287 million of the P125 million that the OVP spent in merely 11 days during the last quarter of 2022, Duterte’s first year in office.