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This combination photo shows Vice President Sara Duterte taken on Aug. 27, 2024 and detained chief of staff Zuleika Lopez taken on Nov. 21, 2024.
House of Representatives via Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate impeachment court has summoned the chief of staff of Vice President Sara Duterte to testify before the tribunal.
Impeachment presiding officer Francis Escudero on Wednesday, July 8, ordered the issuance of a summons for lawyer Zuleika Lopez to testify before the impeachment court over the November 2024 threats allegedly uttered by Duterte during a Zoom press conference.
The impeachment court set Lopez's appearance on Tuesday, July 14.
The House prosecution team on July 7 first asked the impeachment court to summon Lopez to testify.
It could be recalled that Duterte, during the November 2024 Zoom press conference, said that she had hired an assassin to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez if anything were to happen to her.
This was after Lopez was cited in contempt by the House of Representatives over her "undue interference" in its inquiry into the Office of the Vice President's confidential funds.
The House panel, which cited her in contempt, said the order was due to a letter she signed asking the Commission on Audit not to comply with a House subpoena and her alleged evasive answers during the hearing.
During the same Zoom press conference where Duterte made the threats, Lopez was also present in the meeting and was seen crying.
The video of Lopez crying during the Zoom meeting was played during the defense team's cross-examination of the court's first witness, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Senior Agent John Mark Calilung.
Lopez is expected to be the third witness to testify before the impeachment court. The prosecution will present NBI Agent Jeremy Lotoc as a witness on Monday, July 13.
Meanwhile, Capt. Belinda Bello, executive director of the House of Representatives Sergeant-at-Arms, is expected to testify before the impeachment court on July 15.
NBI Director Melvin Matibag is also set to testify before the impeachment court a week after Lopez and the two others take the witness stand.
