Lopez transfer triggers fiery tirade from Duterte

(UPDATE) VICE President Sara Duterte's chief of staff was at the center of a test of wills between the vice president and the House of Representatives, which ordered Zuleika Lopez transferred to the Correctional Institution for Women from the Batasang Pambansa detention center. The move triggered an angry response from the vice president, including a threat to have an assassin kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez if an alleged plot to kill her succeeded. Lopez had been detained at the House after being cited for contempt, but House Blue Ribbon committee chairman and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said his panel had agreed to move her because her presence at the Batasan complex was "alarming" to some members after Duterte said she wanted to stay indefinitely there, too, using her brother Rep. Paolo Duterte's office to sleep so she could be near her chief of staff. Lopez turned emotional when staff from the House sergeant-at-arms served an order from the House panel for her transfer to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City. She refused to follow the order and called Duterte who at that time was inside her brother's office. When Duterte came in, they held a virtual press conference to protest the "harassment," saying it was a threat to Lopez's life. Lopez then broke down, cried, complained of a chronic backache and asked to be excused. She was brought to Veterans Memorial Medical Center but was later transferred to St Luke Medical Center in Quezon City. Later, Duterte took over when Lopez was already losing her breath and went on an expletive-laden tirade, accusing the first lady of being the one who sent over the money used to pay off the employees of the Department of Education. She also said that there was a plot to kill her and accused Romualdez of being the mastermind. Then she said if anything happened to her, she had contracted an assassin to kill President Marcos, his wife and Romualdez. Duterte criticized the police who were watching them for "wasting manpower" to monitor someone accused only of contempt. "So where is she going? Is she going to Singapore? The policemen who are monitoring her are treating her as a criminal. They are wasting manpower to monitor a person who was cited in contempt," Duterte said in Filipino. Duterte said that Lopez "is unable to speak" except to answer some questions from her doctors. Later on, Lopez was brought back to Veterans from St. Luke's hours after an order was signed by House Secretary-General Reginald Velasco and was carried out by Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief Brig Gen. Nicolas Torre III. Duterte and Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa met with Torre, who showed them the order from Velasco. Duterte later convinced Lopez to go back to Veterans. The convoy arrived at 1 p.m., and Lopez was later transferred to her room, accompanied by Duterte, Dela Rosa, and Lopez's legal counsel, Lito Go Jr. In a statement, Velasco said that doctors at the Veterans will "completely examine her and verify her state of health." The standoff and Duterte's subsequent tirades against the government did not sit well with members of the House of Representatives, urging the public not to be misled by her remarks. "Instead of addressing the allegations head-on, she is creating distractions that only sow fear and division," Zambales Rep. Jefferson Khonghun said. House Assistant Majority Leader and Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong also described her statements as "reckless and destabilizing," especially her tirades against the first family and Romualdez. "We do not want these kinds of threats [to] be directed against anyone, not to the sitting president, the speaker or even to the vice president herself. Instead of fostering unity, it incites fear and division, creates an atmosphere of insecurity among the top echelon of our government and promotes a culture of violence which is diametrically opposed to the core of our democratic system of governance," Adiong said. Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, on the other hand, was sympathetic to Duterte and said her visit to Lopez did not break any protocol. "I don't see any violation. I can sleep at my office if there are chances that I cannot go home. If the vice president visited her staff, that is a Filipino custom," Marcoleta told reporters. Dela Rosa informed reporters that he visited St. Luke's to show support for the vice president and Lopez. He also raised concerns about the House's decision to transfer Lopez from the House detention facility to a correctional facility in Mandaluyong. Dela Rosa described the Mandaluyong facility as a prison intended for convicted criminals, arguing that it is not appropriate for someone like Lopez, who was merely cited for contempt during a House hearing.