- Cited for contempt by a convict out on bail
- VP Sara and staff visited Lyka, slept in Polong’s office
DAVAO CITY – Vice President Sara Duterte said in an interview during her visit in Butuan City that she will not comment on the House of Representatives (HoR) allegation that some recipients of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) confidential funds seem dubious since she has not yet seen the acknowledgment receipts.
“I have no comment on that because I have not seen the acknowledgment receipt (AR), because basically, all of the documents will go directly to the Commission on Audit (COA) which audited the confidential funds,” she said.
Duterte said she will not comment on the certain “Mary Grace Piattos” receipt since she doesn’t know how the submission of copies of the ARs to the COA and HoR was processed and who the people who handled those documents.
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on Wednesday cited OVP Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez for contempt over her “undue interference” in the panel’s proceedings investigating the OVP’s use of confidential funds.
ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro, a convict out on bail, who moved to cite Lopez for contempt, cited the letter sent by the OVP 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.
The OVP’s Aug. 21 letter said the subpoena should not be complied with, citing reasons such as a potential violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers.
Lopez, meanwhile, said that the letter was not intended to undermine Congress.
“The premise is that the findings of the audit investigation are not yet final, so we feel that it was not the right time to release it. It was inconclusive,” she told the panel.
Lopez appealed for the contempt order to be lifted, maintaining that it was just a “respectful request” to the COA.
“There was no intention, your honor, to demand from them, or to order them, or to commandeer them into something that they did not want to do. It was something that we requested of the Commission on Audit. And at the end of the day, it is still the Commission on Audit who will decide best,” Lopez said.
Duterte visited Lopez on Thursday night who is detained in the HoR, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco confirmed on Friday.
In an interview with Super Radyo dzBB, Velasco said that the vice president arrived around 7:40 p.m. and met with Lopez at the visitors’ center.
“We granted the request of the Vice President. She coordinated with us and we provided additional security on top of her security, alerted the nearby Batasan police precinct here and even Quezon City police in case there are disturbances,” he added.
Velasco said the Vice President and the rest of her contingent slept in the HoR specifically at the office of Davao City First District Rep. Paolo Duterte. ###
