MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief of staff was brought to a hospital early Saturday shortly after she revealed in a press conference that she was going to be transferred to a correctional facility from the House of Representatives where she has been detained for contempt.
As of posting time, lawyer Zuleika Lopez is confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City after a check-up at the Veterans’ Memorial Medical Center where she was brought by a police ambulance.
Speaking to reporters at the hospital, the vice president said that they decided to bring Lopez to St. Luke’s in a private ambulance.
Lopez complained of heavy breathing and vomiting and collapsed during the time she was served an order by the House Blue Ribbon committee that she was going to be transferred.
Speaking in Filipino, Duterte, who visited Lopez at the House on Friday, said that just as they were about to load her in a private vehicle and bring to St. Luke’s where she usually goes for her check-ups, a police ambulance appeared and took her to VMMC instead.
Duterte added that the police even tried to close the ambulance door “in my face.”
Duterte described the policemen who were monitoring them as “scheming” and “lying” as they were the only ones who decided on the fate of the patient, not the doctor.
Duterte said Lopez was “hysterical, in pain” as she accused the police of “treating her like a criminal.”
“They are wasting manpower to monitor a person who was cited in contempt,” Duterte said.
Duterte said that Lopez was “unable to speak” except when answering some questions from her doctors.
“She said her piece kanina (earlier) na (that) she does not feel safe and she is astounded by the lack of rules and the assault on democracy.” Duterte said.
In a press conference early Saturday morning, an emotional Lopez said that she would defy the order of the House Blue Ribbon panel to send her to the women’s correctional facility in Mandaluyong City.
“If they were not able to rule [on my Motion for Reconsideration to lift the order of contempt] how were they able to get an order to transfer me to the Women’s correction in the dead of the night. Bakit ganun? Wala na bang rights ang mga tao? (Why? Do people don’t have rights anymore?)… I don’t understand,” Lopez said.
House Blue Ribbon Chairman Joel Chua and Sergeant-at-Arms Napoleon Taas, meanwhile, described the situation of Duterte and Lopez as “alarming acts of defiance,”
Chua said that the move to transfer Lopez to the correctional facility was because she was “a high security risk” for the House and to the vice president as well
.
“That is why we decided to transfer her to a facility with a capacity to secure her,” Chua said.
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