House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left) and Vice President Sara Duterte. (File photos from RTVM/LIVE, VOLTAIRE F. DOMINGO / Senate Social Media Unit)
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s claim that House Speaker Martin Romualdez wanted her killed is only “a product of her fertile imagination,” according to a lawmaker.
House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe suspected that this was just Duterte’s way of diverting the issue from the alleged misuse of funds by her office and that of the Department of Education’s P612.5 million confidential funds.
“The Vice President’s claim is totally without basis. It’s just the product of her fertile imagination,” Dalipe said.
“‘Yung drama-drama nya, budol-budol lang yan. Diversionary,” he said.
(Her drama-drama, it’s just a bluff. Diversionary.)
“Nililihis nya ang issue dun sa di tamang paggamit nya ng P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds na natanggap ng Office of the Vice President (P500 million) and Department of Education (P112.5 million) nung 2022 at 2023, nung sya ay education secretary pa,” he noted.
(She diverts the issue from his improper use of P612.5 million in confidential and intelligence funds received by the Office of the Vice President [P500 million] and Department of Education [P112.5 million] in 2022 and 2023, when she was still education secretary.)
Dalipe noted Duterte and her officials’ failure to explain where these funds went.
“We are appealing to our people not to fall for these unreasonable outbursts intended to distract them from the real issue,” the lawmaker added.
Last Friday and Saturday, Duterte went to the House detention to visit her chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez.
Lopez was cited for contempt by House committee on good governance and public accountability after it found her reportedly committing undue interference in the panel’s hearings.
The vice president spent the night at the Batasang Pambansa complex to protect her staff and eventually stayed in the House of Representatives office of her brother – Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte – “indefinitely.”
In an online press conference early Saturday morning, Duterte lamented the panel’s order to transfer Lopez to the Correctional Institution for Women.
The vice president also revealed that Romualdez wanted her killed.
On Saturday morning, Lopez fell ill and was rushed to Veterans Memorial Medical Center and then transferred to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.