00:00In his response to the hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability today,
00:06Vice President Sara Duterte asked for an extension of the contempt order against her Chief of Staff,
00:12who is appointed by Jonathan Andal.
00:14Yes ma'am, because we have nothing to do with this, ma'am.
00:20One minute to just declare your position.
00:22Well, point of order.
00:24The hearing of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has just begun.
00:28Vice President Sara Duterte and ACT-Teachers Partylist Representative Franz Castro are raising their voices.
00:35When the hearing was suspended for a moment,
00:37the Vice President was allowed to stand and the congressmen led by the Committee were allowed to go.
00:44The Vice President was questioned as to why the Office of the Vice President or OVP Staff
00:51that was questioned by the Committee earlier.
00:53How can you ask a resource person without giving him copies?
00:57Without giving him copies?
00:59Mr. Chair, point of order.
01:00The four OVP staff who just arrived and were arrested by the Committee
01:06because of the number of times they did not attend the hearings.
01:09But they were not with his Chief of Staff, Atty. Zulaika Lopez,
01:13who is at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center
01:16because he is suffering from an acute stress disorder
01:19based on the Certificate of Confinement he gave to the Committee
01:22from the doctors and an excuse letter.
01:25But it was approved by a congressman.
01:27His doctors are not saying here that he is not physically incapable of attending today's hearing.
01:39I just find it a little bit odd, Mr. Chair,
01:43that it was not mentioned here that because of his condition, he will not be able to attend.
01:51Because Lopez did not attend today and because of what happened this weekend,
01:55the Committee decided to add five more days for the contempt order to Lopez
02:00that should be completed today.
02:02I move, Mr. Chair, that the period of detention of Atty. Lopez be ten days instead of five days
02:11because he will not be able to attend today.
02:14We saw in the history of his evasive attitude, behavior,
02:24and his creation that he is lying,
02:27that he was not harassed or barged into his room,
02:34all of that is included.
02:37The congressmen who are allies of the doctors tried to counter this.
02:41Even the Vice-Chairman questioned the extension of the contempt order of Lopez.
02:45But the Chairman of the Committee did not agree to speak to the Vice-Chairman
02:49if he will not admit that he will tell the truth.
02:53I will only recognize you if you will take your oath.
02:57Okay. Let's do this.
02:59The point of the Vice-Chairman is, why will Lopez be punished for telling the truth to four defendant officials
03:05when the President is receiving resignations from Assistant Secretaries and Undersecretaries
03:10as well as the Appointing Authority?
03:12I asked you earlier, who is the Appointing Authority?
03:15Yousef of ASEC, what is your answer?
03:18Secretary. You don't know.
03:20I haven't answered yet.
03:23I saw you. Answer.
03:25Camera.
03:27I saw you. Answer.
03:29You said Secretary.
03:31You don't know everything.
03:33The one who is on fire is the President.
03:35At that time, the tension grew and the Vice-Chairman asked to reconsider
03:39the extension of the contempt order of Lopez.
03:42You need to reconsider that extension of your detention.
03:45It was illegal in the first place.
03:47You asked the President why he accepted the resignation.
03:52Do not ask due process.
03:54If you have any question insofar as the actions of this committee are concerned,
04:00I think the proper remedy is for you to go to the court.
04:04Sure. I will go to court.
04:07But every day, you are depriving a person of her liberty while I await.
04:15That is precisely the point, ma'am.
04:18If our action of detaining your Chief of Staff is against the law,
04:23I think the proper remedy, and I think you are a lawyer,
04:27the proper remedy is to go to the court.
04:29Sir, do you really want to show the Filipino people what you know about the law?
04:35That is the decision of the committee as a whole.
04:38I hope you will respect it.
04:41I am just helping you, sir, because the Filipinas are embarrassed.
04:44Is this how the House of Representatives works?
04:47For GMA Integrated News, Jonathan Andal, for 24 Hours.
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