- Crowd gathers at Rizal Park for VP Sara, former administrator Zuleika Lopez
AROUND 500 Davaoeños flocked to Rizal Park for a lightning prayer and candle-lighting rally on Saturday night to back embattled Vice President Sara Duterte and her chief of staff, Atty. Zuleika Lopez, who was detained on a contempt citation by a House committee.
Those who attended the activity wore black t-shirts printed with the words “Filipinos are not for Sale.”
In an interview with the media at the sidelines of the prayer rally, Vice Mayor Jay Melchor Quitain Jr. said, “I’m sure a lot of Davaoeños didn’t like what they saw. They (lawmakers) should uphold the rule of law, we can achieve doing things in a peaceful way, like having this peaceful prayer rally, that is one of the ways.”
He said the city is not preventing anyone from airing their grievances because it’s their Constitutional right to express themselves “within the bounds of the law.”
Recently, Lopez was hospitalized after suffering a panic attack following the order signed by Rep. Joel Chua, chair of the committee on good government and public accountability, transferring her to the Women’s Correctional Facility on Nov. 22 instead of her detention room inside the House of Representatives.
Lopez was detained at the lower chamber after she was cited in contempt for her supposed “undue interference” in the panel’s investigation into the confidential funds of the OVP and the Department of Education when the vice president was the secretary.
The House panel said the decision to change Lopez’s place of detention was reached during an emergency Zoom meeting on Friday after receiving two letters that raised “red flags” among its members.
Among them is Duterte’s supposed interference, which the panel warned could be a precedent for abuse.
Lopez was brought to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) after she felt ill after the order for her transfer was implemented. Duterte claimed that the order to transfer her chief-of-staff was “attempted homicide.”
“Naniniwala ako na it was attempted homicide because she feared for her life. ‘Pag nakakita siya ng uniform ng police, natataranta siya. Kasi imaginine mo ba naman nine [police officers] ang biglang papasok sa kuwarto mo,” Duterte said in an early morning media interview at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.
Photo courtesy of Rhoda Grace B. Saron
