During the regular session of the 20th City Council, third district councilor Lorenzo Villafuerte authored the resolution expressing sympathy to Lopez, a former city administrator here.
“I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege. Last November 20, 2024, during the Hearing of the House of Representatives, Atty. Zuleika T. Lopez, the Chief of Staff of the Vice President and former City Administrator of Davao, was present to answer questions regarding the budget of the Office of the Vice President,” Villafuerte said.
During the said hearing, Lopez was cited in contempt by one of the members of the House over alleged undue interference in the said proceedings.
According to representative France Castro who cited Lopez in contempt, the latter sent a letter to the Commission on Audit (COA), requesting the commission to disregard a congressional subpoena for audit reports on the office’s confidential expenses in 2022 and 2023 as the basis for the contempt order.
Villafuerte explained that it was merely a respectful request and was not intended to undermine Congress since the audit investigation was not yet final and it was not the right time to release the said findings.
Despite Lopez’s appeal, Castro was firm on her decision which resulted in the detention of Lopez for 5 days in a detention facility within the House of Representatives.
Such order, according to Villafuerte may be considered arbitrary and possibly tantamount to a grave abuse of discretion.
On the night of November 22, Lopez alleged that several men barged into her detention room and forced her to read an order of her immediate transfer to a correctional institution for women.
Villafuerte said such act of coercion and compulsion is argued as an outright violation of her right to liberty and due process as enshrined in Section 1, Article III of the 1987 Constitution.
“As the chairperson of the Committee on Civil, Political, and Human Rights, it is my duty to remind everyone that Human rights is the most basic right which is bestowed on each and every individual, and to strongly oppose any attempts to undermine such right,” he said.
“Any infringement of the fundamental rights of Attorney Lopez, a fellow public servant and Davaoeño, demands our utmost sympathy,” Villafuerte said.
The committee on Monday (Nov. 25) extended the detention period of Lopez to 10 days from the original five.
Lopez is currently confined at Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) in Quezon City for she is being treated for acute stress disorder and other physical conditions.
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